Chapter 335
Chapter 335
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 335
Chapter Title: S6. Erasure Domain of the Ruined Fortress ~■■ Dormant Beneath the Debris~ -4
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When you've seized the advantage, you must press the attack relentlessly. Especially against a formidable opponent.
I pursued the red afterimage that had crash-landed in the forest and leaped skyward once more. My plan was to rack up damage while Mirror Yuna had her feet planted on the ground.
Clank, clank! Fwoooosh—!
Boom—!!
The armored mega-beast's massive arm crashed into the ground, propelled by rocket thrusters. The earth trembled like an earthquake had hit, and a towering pillar of soil erupted from the impact site.
No matter how much she protected herself with repulsion fields or whatever, a direct hit from that would've turned her into a human pancake.
—Did I get her?!
"As if, you idiot Dad! Behind you!"
Beeeep—!
A Minus shot from the rear sliced off my left arm. I immediately scooped up the severed limb, reattached it, and spun around.
Mirror Yuna, who had clearly been flung to the ground by my frontal assault moments ago, was now gliding elegantly through the night sky.
Instantaneous teleportation.
Right—when Mirror Yuna first appeared, she showed up out of nowhere too. Inside this Tower of Illusions, could she move freely like that?
Opponents with mobility skills are a pain. But... the fact that she had such an ability was actually good news for me. A puzzle piece clicked into place, and a strategy formed in my mind.
—Gang up on her!
"...Okay!"
Aisha began hurling black dragon scales from her body at Yuna slicing through the sky. These weren't mere throws—they were infused with intricate mana control, homing in like mini-missiles.
Mirror Yuna pulled off acrobatic maneuvers on her broom, but the scales doggedly pursued her. Still, she didn't look the least bit alarmed.
"Yuna's no idiot. Your big bulky body? Perfect shield."
Flash.
Mirror Yuna suddenly appeared behind my back. The scales hung in midair for a split second before rocketing straight at their target again—and I was right in the way.
Stab, shunk.
Countless scales pierced my gelatinous body.
It might look like Aisha's attack had backfired... but no. I chuckled inwardly.
—Think we're fighting without considering friendly fire? Huh?
"......!"
Both the mega-beast and Aisha shared the same dragon scale family. That meant compatibility between them. I absorbed the scales outright, sprouting them from my back. Then I prepped for a more powerful counter-launch.
—I'm not a shield, I'm a secondary launcher, you punk!
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The scales fired out like bursting fireworks. Mirror Yuna twisted and dodged to minimize hits, and those that connected bounced off her repulsion shield. But some definitely landed.
—Punch!
I threw a jab. Even a simple jab from a 150-meter monster packed devastating destructive power.
"......"
Crack, crunch! Space around Mirror Yuna shattered. She slipped through the rift and reappeared in the sky on my opposite side. Teleportation, just as expected.
The scales swarming that spot got pulverized by my fist.
Absorb the scales. Relaunch.
Infinite recycling of no-friendly-fire bullet hell, combined with mega-beast punches raining down. This had to be what a living aircraft carrier felt like.
No time for her to cast either. Petty little Minus shots? I could tank those with my body. Techniques fired in thin lines lose effectiveness against something my size!
"......Annoying."
—I'm annoyed too, 'cause I can't see Yuna. Get outta the way and stop interfering!
"Die. Hundred-Eyed Argus."
Kreeeen—
Hundreds of pitch-black hands extended from Mirror Yuna's conical hat. Each fingertip glowed with the red light of Minus.
Bweeeeeep—!!
What followed was a disco-ball barrage of indiscriminate Minus fire. Red lines shot out in all directions from Mirror Yuna, even starting to spin!
Yuri flattened herself on top of my head, while Aisha had to dart around dodging the Minus blasts.
"You trying to wipe out this whole session?! Damn it, Dad, what do we do?!"
—I'll block it!
I enveloped Mirror Yuna in a bear hug. Red light permeated through my white gelatinous skin. Hundreds of Minus strands gnawed at the mega-beast's body, but my regeneration outpaced the damage.
Because I'd left one module behind in the Erasure Domain.
Perfect matchup.
The traits granted to the mega-beast to take me down definitively had meshed with various factors, becoming the key to stabbing right at Mirror Yuna!
Trapped in my embrace, she muttered.
"...Pointless. All your efforts will just become wounds in the end."
—Meaning is something I—we decide.
"You know it too. Next time will be different. In the end... players can't beat the game master."
Crack, crunch.
Shatter—! With the sound of breaking glass, a spatial rift tore open behind Mirror Yuna. For a split second, I glimpsed the real Yuna sleeping beyond it. That was the top floor, the tower's pinnacle.
She hurled herself through the gap and vanished in an instant.
...This was as far as my script went.
—Yuri!
"Right away. True Desire Binding."
Clankle-clankle! Chains lashed out.
This time, the chains bound not a person, but the spatial rift itself. I'd aimed for a shortcut. Let Mirror Yuna flee to the upper levels of the Tower of Illusions, then follow the path she'd opened.
—Haha, how's that? Didn't see that trick coming...
ZZzt.
The scenery beyond the rift instantly shifted to a wasteland. The next floor's landscape.
—You knew, huh...
I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.
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The shortcut plan to punch straight to the top floor failed, but I'd at least secured a stable passage to the next level.
Untangling this floor's convoluted traps would've required every trick in the book, so it was a relief to skip the hassle. Time to regroup here before heading up.
I'd stabilized the passage so it wouldn't close.
(Relatively tiny compared to the mega-beast) I lit a campfire and gathered with my allies around it—including Woo Chae-rin nursing PTSD from the sudden kaiju showdown, and Oh Hye-in riding a dopamine high.
"Boss, that body kinda looks like marshmallow now. If I tear off a bit and roast it, will it taste like marshmallow?"
—Wasn't originally, but now it does. Deciding your own flavor is a perk of information-based lifeforms. I've switched the surface slime to marshmallow mode, so go ahead and roast some.
"Whoa, a 150-meter marshmallow..."
As I basked in full-on Ho-bbang-man vibes, Yuri Lancaster poked at the fire and asked.
"Mima, what did her final warning mean? Didn't feel like mere bluffing."
'In the end, players can't beat the game master.' A loaded statement, but I got it right away. In short:
—Means 'see you at the top floor.' Promises to wipe the floor with me then.
"But Minus doesn't work on you now, right? So how could she..."
Exactly. Yuna's abilities split into two main categories: the deification power Minus, and the sublimation power of illusion realm gates. The latter turns illusions into reality.
And this Tower of Illusions was like a session with Yuna as master. Put those together, and you get the terrifying conclusion: Yuna has reality-warping powers.
Folding the ground in half, dropping ten meteors in a row—she could've done whatever she wanted.
"...Then why didn't she use it in this fight?"
—I can guess. Whoever set this up dotes on Yuna, so they probably didn't want to warp or damage data she cherishes.
"But they tried to erase me and you, whom Yuna adores. They even used Minus on the session's threatening elements."
—That's the key.
Mirror Yuna wasn't rejecting everything.
Think about it: if she was pushing the philosophy of "love leads to pain" to its extreme, she'd have tossed Yuna into an empty white void devoid of anything.
Plus, she didn't touch the self-aware NPCs much. With authority to roam floors and set traps freely, she could've reworked Abraham or Oh Hye-in easily.
In other words.
Mirror Yuna's hysterical reactions were limited to specific relationships.
—People she loves so much the pain of loss would be unbearable: priority elimination. Things Yuna moderately likes: priority protection. Things Yuna dislikes: lower priority. Something like that.
That explains this floor's mishmash formation too.
Yuna loves wuxia and pure romance, so main theme pulled from wuxia session. Doesn't care for giant robots vs. kaiju clashes, so deemed too risky and unnecessary—erased.
Or another hypothesis.
Maybe being separated from the main body made full power hard to exert. Yuna and Mirror Yuna had never existed apart before this incident, backing that up.
—Or the magic device from my lab overseeing simulations is on the top floor. Either way, top-floor Mirror Yuna will be twice as strong.
"I see..."
—Point is, from now on, we prep to face reality-warping.
And we have ways.
Until now, I'd played nice. This tower was all Yuna's memories, so wrecking or altering it felt oddly heartbreaking.
But with this prickly Mirror Yuna threat, no more holding back.
—An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Fight world with world. I'll claim this floor as central command. Then seize lower and upper floors as I go, stripping Mirror Yuna's resources for reality-warping.
"Seize control, huh."
—Yeah. Yuri, you and Aisha head down with Abraham and take Floor 2. Floor 1 too if possible. Oh Hye-in and Woo Chae-rin, hold Floor 3 here. Erasure Domain's handled by the crow, so ignore it.
"Boss, I can't use illusion magic though..."
Of course I prepped. I formed a tank of my slime and molded a slime launcher for her.
—Coat yourself with this. Should work. But why the weird look?
"...Boss, can I say something that just popped into my head? Spraying white slime everywhere feels just like—"
"Puhahahaha!"
—Shut it!
I smacked Oh Hye-in's mouth with a tentacle to cut off her filthy words. But I couldn't stop Aisha, who was already cracking up anticipating it.
With the plan set, time to execute.
—I'll rocket up that passage. How well you secure the floors decides my survival odds. Count on you.
"Ah, Boss. Wait. Take this. Hoi!"
Whoosh.
Oh Hye-in tossed something. Caught it: the magical girl transformation device Dreaming Mirror.
"Can't go up in monster mode, right? Transform to human form with that."
—Oh.
"You know how, right Boss? For ownership transfer, shout the emergency transform code. Pure Pure Fluffy Fluffy, the Cutest in the Universe, Me, Appearing! Got it?"
—Ah...
I sighed. Who knew past karma would bite like this. Aisha's eyes sparkled with anticipation, already revving up to tease. Yuri was brimming with mischief too.
Fine, whatever... Getting shy just invites more ribbing. Who am I? Creator of Heart, the enigmatic woman who once swept the Empire. King of Acting. Spouting this crap is easier than swallowing flies.
Deep breath. One shot!
Pikang!
Pirorong pirorong pirorong~♪
Prismatic light enveloped my mega-beast body. After a shower of sparkly effects and sound cues, a human-form mad wizard stood there.
Back at last. To a human body.
"...Alright. Now I'm really heading up."
"Dad, why are your ears so red? Embarrassed? Acting cute without committing to the concept is what gets you shy?"
"No need to feel shame speaking facts, Mima. You are the cutest in the universe. Go on, we'll be waiting."
"......"
I bolted through the spatial rift. Just you wait, you little demons. I'll remember this grudge.
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After the mad wizard vanished, Woo Chae-rin stared at the spot and muttered.
"Maybe I should've given him something too..."
"Nah, don't worry. Mima already took yours. No need to fret."
"...Huh? What?"
"He said no need to fret."
It took Woo Chae-rin an hour to realize Gordius and her lovechild Meteor had been messily fused into the mega-beast.
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Trials come, and children depart. The twelve who started dwindled to nine before they knew it. Each death unique.
One child bashed their head against iron bars and died. Believing they were trapped in a nightmare, certain death in the dream was the only way to wake.
May they find peace, if only in dreams.
Another leaped from a window to their death. Not suicide. They yearned to escape the Magic Tower and found an unlocked window at last.
But illusion magic made it seem like a one-story drop. In truth, it was the 20th floor.
May they find peace, even underground.
One fell for a Violet Magic Tower mage; they eloped in love. Never seen again.
The children claimed aloud the kid escaped to a happy life, but deep down they knew better. Two portions of bone dust had been sprinkled in the child's cell.
May they find peace, if only in love's embrace.
......
The children changed. Sharper, more jagged. Not for the better. Mealtimes erupted in violence without fail, and even solitary confinement rang with curses and screams.
No outlet for seething rage but to spew it at fellow sufferers.
Yuna Yurensuto, the experiment subject, bore the brunt. Accusations of using the Golden Key fueled the hatred.
Another change was religious fervor. Tower mages tempted them: worship not the goddess, but another god, and earn food. Some did.
Alice was the most zealous.
"He spreads black wings and crosses the heavens—"
She immersed herself in the Black Dragon faith, reaping rewards from the mages: their leftovers, teeth-marked scraps. Thanks to that, Alice always ate her fill.
Now, another trial approached.
"One of you can leave. Just open that red door and walk through. But you have only one day."
Not a sweet offer.
Beyond the red door echoed whirring gears, clanks, horrifying, painful sounds. Blatantly ominous.
But... what if it really led out?
That thought alone.
Kept circling. Relentlessly.
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Desolation is the metaphor for decline.
Ruins of crumbled buildings, scattered debris hinting at past lives, monsters prowling soil burying old civilizations. Stars obscured by sandstorms.
An era where once-glorious things die one by one. Clinging to remnants, clutching tight to avoid loss, only for them to slip through fingers.
Hopes chewed dry taste bitter now; no time to lament encroaching despair amid survival struggles.
In such times, a youth named Rearo shouted hope before eight wanderers.
"Everyone, I've found the bunker! Found Paradise! Let's move out. After this long trek, follow the compass!"
On the opposite side, a boy named Espero denied hope.
"We can't go that way! We won't survive the journey, and there's no Paradise there anyway. For real!"
One speaks truth, one lies. In the tug-of-war's midst.
"...Role swap?"
"D-Destruction God has arrived! Crush Rearo's scheme! He's leading everyone to hell!"
"Hey, Pero. Calling me Destruction God might not be smart. Makes you sound like a follower. Undermines your pitch."
"...Oops! What now?!"
The mad wizard appeared.