The Paradise of Ashes (3)
Even in the age of superhumans, the gaming industry had somehow managed to keep itself alive.
Which made sense — not everyone could become an Awakened or a hunter.
Boss raids in games usually mark the area the boss is about to strike in advance.
The boss fight against the Praying Demon was exactly that.
Watch closely, and dodge well.
Swiiiiish!
Light carved itself across the ground in intersecting patterns.
The attacks would come flying along those paths in moments.
KWA-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The moment I threw myself aside, a rain of spears poured down from the sky.
"What is this?!"
"Exactly what it looks like."
In this boss fight, quick reflexes and timing were everything.
With just a tiny dash of luck thrown in.
"This fight is all about withstanding the divine punishment that heaven itself rains down."
Zing! Zeee-eeng!
Countless attack ranges and trajectories drew themselves across the ground in glowing lines.
"Please do your best to dodge them."
"AAAAAAGH!"
Lightning struck from above, blades swept in from the sides, and flames erupted from the ground below.
Tat! Tat!
I moved fast, hunting for the gaps where no light had been drawn.
Ayase, too, seemed to be weaving through it all with surprising grace.
"H-how long does this go on?!"
"Until we strip every last layer of the demon's barrier."
The holy barrier that shrouded the Praying Demon.
Breach that barrier with attacks, kill the demon hiding inside, and the boss fight was over.
"Really?! You could've told me that sooner!"
Apparently bringing down the barrier looked simple enough to her, because Ayase began to recite a prayer.
"O Lord who wields the power of creation, source of the flame that reduces enemies to dust, grant me the strength to strike down those who scheme against me!"
This time, a bow descended into her hands.
A bow of pure gold, breathtaking in its beauty.
"Brahmastra!"
As she drew back the string, a raging inferno loaded itself like an arrow.
Fwoooosh! Twang!
The moment she released her fingers, the flaming arrow struck the demon's barrier dead-on.
"There, that should—!"
"Ah, I wouldn't have made that choice, personally."
"…What?"
I pointed silently at the front.
There —
FWOOOOSH!
The arrow she'd fired had been reflected outright and was rocketing straight back toward us.
"KYAAAH?!"
In a single motion I grabbed her by the clothes and hauled us both out of the arrow's path.
"That demon's barrier reflects attacks, you see."
"THEN TELL ME THAT KIND OF THING IN ADVANCE!"
"Who summoned the bow before I'd even finished talking?"
"……"
Unable to find a word of rebuttal, she shut her mouth.
"To be fair, 'reflect' isn't quite the whole story. Look at that."
A thin crack had appeared where Ayase's arrow had struck the barrier.
"Huh?!"
"It takes the hit, mimics the attack that was used against it, and fires it back. That's the mechanic."
Which meant that to win this boss fight, you had to:
Dodge heaven's divine punishment, attack the barrier, dodge the copycat attacks the barrier fired back in imitation — and then, at the very end, kill the demon itself.
"That's ridiculous…!"
"Gates are always like that."
Those things were, by their nature, single-mindedly obsessed with killing hunters.
Expecting reason from such creatures was a fool's errand.
Had anyone ever seen a murderer sit down and negotiate with his victim before stabbing them?
"Then how are we supposed to beat it?"
"That WAS the strategy, just now."
"…I'm sorry, what?"
Astonishingly, what we'd just done really was the canonical method for clearing the Praying Demon.
Grind the barrier down slowly, taking your time.
The hours of trial and punishment are always long, and always agonizing.
Under normal circumstances, that is.
But right now, there was no time for a leisurely clear.
In a matter of minutes, another gate would open — and I alone knew it.
"Ayase."
"Yes?"
"There is one method I have."
Timing was everything in this plan.
I told her exactly what she needed to do.
"That's really all I have to do?"
"That's all."
"…I feel rather useless now."
I didn't argue the point.
KUGUGUNG! KWAKWAKWAKWANG!
The divine punishment kept hammering down without pause.
Wait for it.
Dodge, dodge, and dodge again, winding my concentration tighter and tighter as I waited for that pattern.
Wait, and keep waiting —
FWASH! FWASH! FWASH!
At last, the thing I'd been waiting for.
Three flashes of light at the center of the ground!
A punishment pattern that hammered down three massive lightning strikes in succession.
GUROOOORUNG!
If this pattern had one defining trait, it was that a lateral attack ALWAYS followed immediately after it fired.
Which meant, in other words, that the frontal zone would be left completely wide open.
GUROOOORUNG!
The second bolt of lightning came crashing down.
Now. Time to prepare the attack.
"Come forth, Dantalion!"
A black lance filled my hand.
The Demon Spear Dantalion answers your call.
Demonification is activated.
GUROOOORUNG!
The final bolt fell, and for a brief moment the frontal zone became a perfect safe zone.
I slammed my feet into the floor and charged with everything I had.
Hell Three Spears
The first thrust hammered into the barrier.
First Spear: Demon Mountain
Crack!
A massive fracture spiderwebbed across the barrier, shards of light spraying outward.
And then the barrier began to copy the attack, sending a perfect replica flying right back at me.
I can survive the first one!
The opening strike hadn't yet gone through the amp-up of consecutive hits.
It was more bearable than I'd thought—
KWA-BOOM!
"Kuheeeugh!"
Dammit — I felt like my insides had been torn loose.
Blood came surging up from somewhere deep inside me.
If that had been the second thrust, this wouldn't have ended at mere injury.
Should I be glad that I was strong, or mourn the fact that I'd needed to be?
My feelings turned strangely complicated.
I can't stop here.
Just as I was about to unfold the second spear —
"…Take it!"
Ayase, who had been chanting her prayer since the very first lightning strike, hurled a shield my way.
"Aegis!"
A shield white as flawless jade settled into my arm as if it had been drawn there.
With this, I can commit fully.
I could stretch out the second thrust without holding anything back.
Second Spear: Demon Sea
KWAKWAKWAKWANG!
The barrier took blow after blow in rapid succession.
Far larger shards than before went spinning through the air, and the great fracture spread outward from the center like branching lightning.
Bzzzzzzt!
And once again, the barrier began readying its counterattack.
An attack at least twice as powerful as before came crashing down over me.
But the one it struck — was not me.
The shield of Zeus — Aegis.
The shield of myth itself had kept me safe.
KUGUGUGUGU!
Aegis weathered the reflected thrust head-on.
Having fulfilled its purpose, the shield dissolved into light and was gone.
"Now, the finisher."
The final strike tore forward to shatter the barrier once and for all.
Third Spear: Demon Heaven
The unfathomable sky of the Demon Duke.
That overwhelming power smashed through the barrier and impaled the demon's body clean through.
"We won!"
A cheer rose from below.
And yet — it was too early to declare victory.
Swiiiiiiish…!
Because my final attack was, even now, being imitated.
"Wh-what?! The barrier's already destroyed!"
This power of imitation wasn't rooted in the barrier itself — it had been granted to them directly by that very sky overhead.
Which meant that even once they were brought down, the power the heaven had left behind lingered on, stubborn and spiteful.
KWAAAAAAH!
Third Spear: Demon Heaven.
The spear of destruction came flying to break me in two, but I wasn't worried in the least.
Instead, I raised my right arm and stuck my tongue out at the sky.
Protection
Once per day.
A guardian's shield that blocks any attack, no exceptions.
The golden barrier turned aside the final imitation strike without so much as a shudder.
Protection has ended.
And with that — the A-rank gate, Paradise of Ashes.
Clear complete.
There was a reason I knew this gate inside and out.
The reason, if you must know —
I've entered this particular gate more than ten times already.
After all, it was only recorded in the archives in the first place because it had spawned endlessly, over and over.
Granted, every time I was too busy just surviving the divine punishment to study it properly.
Either way, the seeds I'd sown had borne fruit.
Since no new gate had opened, it seemed I'd cleared it within the ten-hour window.
"Hooaaah."
…Only now that the work was done did the irritation come creeping up.
Someone is imposing a trial upon you.
A trial, dropped on me out of nowhere.
That was why I was crawling through this gate right now.
Under normal circumstances, there'd be no reason on earth to clear some other country's gate for free.
Forcing a gate to mutate, on a whim.
The era when Mutation Gates ran rampant was still a long way off.
Which meant that, honestly, I'd let my guard down a little.
My vigilance toward Mutation Gates had been slipping into the back of my mind — and then this.
Today's little incident made it absolutely certain.
Mutation Gates were, without exaggeration, the worst catastrophe humanity would ever face.
Imagine it — the corpse angels, the Praying Demon, let loose into the world.
Ordinary people wouldn't be able to do a thing. They'd be drained of their life force where they stood.
And the angels would go on to slaughter humanity in their perfected form.
Don't tell me this trial was meant to hammer that lesson home?
Oh, how lovely. How utterly gracious of them.
Still, I'm beyond offended, you son of a bitch.
Whoever you are, if I ever find out — I'm going to kill you myself.
Abnormal access has been detected.
The System's firewall is being reinforced.
Thankfully, it seemed situations like today's didn't happen often.
"How about you get it right the FIRST time instead of patching it AFTER you've been breached, huh?"
"I'm sorry — did you say something?"
"…Nothing at all."
On the walk back toward the gate's exit, Ayase smiled contentedly to herself.
"What's got you so happy?"
"We cleared an A-rank gate this fast! Everyone's going to be absolutely stunned, don't you think?"
She was already famous, and the thought of getting even more famous made her giddy.
What a peculiar woman.
"……"
That despite her terminal diagnosis, she could live with that kind of radiance.
That behind that smile, she was flawlessly hiding a pain no one could so much as imagine.
Why is Ayase so obsessed with popularity?
The question climbed all the way up my throat — and I swallowed it.
Knowing the answer wouldn't let me do anything for her anyway.
And the worst thing I could do wouldn't be leaving her alone — it would be reaching out with some half-baked hand of pity.
"Then, thank you for your hard work."
"You worked the hardest of all, Yamamoto-san."
Ayase flashed me a bright smile.
"By the way… you're really not interested in appearing on the show with me? YouTube or a podcast would be fine too, you know."
"I'll say it again, and for the last time. Not interested."
"…If you'd agree to appear right now, I'd be happy to split today's gate credit with you?"
"Not interested in that either."
If only to protect some poor father's heart from the shock of watching his son caught up in a tabloid frenzy —
everything that happened in today's gate needed to stay buried.
"What a shame. You'd make such a wonderful character, Yamamoto-san."
"All the more reason I should stay a short story. Do you know how many works have been dragged out into a full series and ruined for no good reason?"
"PWAHAHA! That's true."
She gave a wry smile.
"Then again… some masterpieces are unforgettable precisely because they were short."
Ayase's steps turned toward the gate's exit.
"Well then — I do hope we meet again someday. Yamamoto-san."
"Let's hope so. Ayase-san."
Actually, no — preferably we don't.
I had no desire to keep living under threat to my national identity.
"Take care, then… bye-bye!"
Whoosh.
Ayase slipped out through the gate.
After lingering a reasonable while, I followed, exiting the gate through the Return Transfer Circle.
The next day.
One article was splashed across every media outlet in the country, writ large in screaming headlines.
"……"
Ah, these absolute lunatics—