Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 19 E-Book

Sakon Kaidou

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Serie: Infinite Dendrogram
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 312

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

As Death Period is settling into their new home in Gideon, City of Duels, the Tournaments are about to begin. Many powerful Masters, Ray Starling included, have gathered from all over to fight for the right to challenge a special UBM—but in a strange twist of fate, Ray finds himself matched against an opponent that even Altar’s Superiors would hesitate to fight.

Meanwhile, Sechs and his Illegal Frontier finally commence their plan to break out of the gaol, setting off a cascade of consequences that will echo throughout the world of Infinite Dendrogram.

Will Ray emerge victorious from his unexpected challenge? Will Sechs succeed in his plot to do the unthinkable? Or will the answers to these questions be swallowed up by another storm brewing on the horizon, as this escalating chain of events threatens to stir the Overlord of Dreams from a restless slumber?

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Color Illustrations

Prologue: The Sword and the Axe

Chapter One: The First Battle

Chapter Two: Remembering and Overlooking

Chapter Three: The Next Stage

Chapter Four: Encounters

Interlude: An Overlord’s Domain

Chapter Five: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Meetings

Chapter Six: Dreamscape Assailant

Interlude: The Village of the Overlord

Chapter Seven: A Battle He Can Lose

Chapter Eight: Finest in the Right, Strongest in the Left

Chapter Nine: The Dream’s End

Epilogue: Alone in the Dark

Afterword

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Color Images

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Sword and the Axe

Ray Starling

The sound of hammering reached my ears. Next thing I knew, I was in a place I didn’t recognize.

I got the feeling that I couldn’t trust my own senses, and that made me realize that this must be a dream. The vagueness of every sensation definitely reminded me of the time Gardranda had pulled me into a dream with her, but somehow it was also crystal clear that this wasn’t her doing.

The space I was in was completely unfamiliar to me.

It wasn’t just a deep darkness, nor was it some place from my own memories—it was simply a place I didn’t recognize. At the same time, I couldn’t even be certain about what I was seeing all around me. It kinda felt like I’d been thrown into outer space with no suit on.

Nothing here seemed definite. It felt hazy even by dream standards.

However, the purpose of the space was one of the few things about it that was extremely apparent.

In the center there was a single furnace. It was only slightly larger than a person, but it had a presence so overwhelming it almost made me forget this was only a dream. Even the heat coming out of it felt like it was radiating from the heart of the Sun.

The fact that there was a furnace here was what revealed the nature of this place—it was a smithy.

In front of the furnace there was an anvil, and someone was wordlessly hammering away at it.

This person was extremely nondescript: I couldn’t tell if they were a man or a woman, old or young, or even if they were human. Their image was so vague that I could barely even perceive them directly.

Despite this, the person also had an extremely powerful presence.

Even though I didn’t know anything about smithing, I could really feel the heat and weight behind the power and technique they were putting into every swing of the hammer. If someone told me that this person was forging the world itself, I would’ve readily believed them.

However, that wasn’t the case, for the thing on the anvil wasn’t the world, but a single-edged axe. It had no grip, so the person was only hammering on the blade portion of it. The shine of the hot metal was completely unlike that of heated iron or steel. I would bet that even Infinite Dendrogram metals like mithril or the Mythical hihi’irokane didn’t even look like this.

After all...the metal was slightly transparent.

It reminded me of the blue blade wielded by Azurite—Altar.

Though it was now glowing red with heat, the true color of the axe-head must be quite different. Even at this point in its creation, I could tell that the completed work would be truly beautiful.

The process continued. I had no idea how much time was passing. For all I knew, I might’ve been watching this in fast-forward.

As the person worked, the shape of the axe became more and more clear, and after it had its grip attached, the weapon assumed the form of a large one-handed battle-axe.

The weapon’s final color was a white that was even more beautiful than I’d expected. I had never even seen such a color before. Combined with its slight transparency, it looked like it was not only a weapon, but some kind of ceremonial instrument.

Despite this being my first time laying my eyes upon this white axe, though, I felt as though I’d actually seen it somewhere before.

At some point in the process, the person making the axe stopped working on it.

It didn’t look complete yet. It appeared perfect on the outside, but I couldn’t help but feel like something was still missing. It was like it hadn’t received the finishing touch.

“...Two and one.” That was when the person first spoke.

I could understand the words, but the voice somehow gave no hints as to the figure’s age or gender.

After falling silent again, the person raised their hand, making the axe rise up and stop in midair.

They then raised their hand again, making another weapon appear.

It was a blue sword that I knew well by now—the Primeval Blade, Altar.

However, this Altar looked different than the one I knew. It seemed also incomplete, as though it was missing something. Again, it seemed to have not received the finishing touch.

“I am the Blacksmith.” That sounded like a job name, but the way the person said it made me feel like it had a different meaning.

The Blacksmith went on.

“I am conflicted.”

“Only one weapon is to bear the role.”

“I am conflicted.”

“Only one weapon can be treated with all of my being.”

This wasn’t an explanation—they were simply talking to themselves.

Faced with the white axe and the blue sword, the Blacksmith continued to speak. It almost seemed as if they were directly addressing the weapons they created.

“But before me are two masterpieces.” The Blacksmith eyed the axe and the sword, looking conflicted, just as they had described. I could tell that much even though I couldn’t clearly make out their face.

“One will become the crowning work.”

“While the other will find its place among the refuse.”

Even as an onlooker, I could tell that this was a painful choice for an artist to make.

“Which of these weapons should be core to the ■?# that my brethren and I will soon create?”

Thus, the Blacksmith continued to think out loud.

Just like with the creation process itself, in this dream I couldn’t tell exactly how much time was passing by, but this must have gone on for a long time before the Blacksmith ultimately...

“I have decided.”

...took the blue sword in hand.

That was when the dream ended.

◇◇◇

Paladin, Ray Starling

“Ah...!” Next thing I knew, I was surrounded by familiar things.

Looking up, I saw the sky, framed by audience seating in every direction. This made it clear that I was in the eighth arena, which now served as Death Period’s base. Specifically, I was on the stage.

“Ray—you’re awake.”

“...Nemesis?” Her voice was coming from my crest.

“I must say, it was rather surprising that you fell asleep on the stage with no warning. Are you certain you are not more tired than you think?”

“...Well, I did wake up kinda early to spar.” Rook and I had fought a few matches this morning. Since he had a diverse set of combat styles, he made for good practice for The Tournaments. Rook had beaten me more times than I’d beaten him, so after he left I’d stayed behind to think about what I had to work on. Apparently I actually fell asleep in the process.

“I planned to wake you up in time for The Tournaments, but you woke up faster than I expected,” said Nemesis.

I checked, and it looked like almost no time had passed. The dream I’d seen felt really long, but it actually hadn’t even lasted five minutes.

“That dream...” What was that all about, anyway? I’d heard that dreams were supposed to be things your brain reconstructed from your memory, but this one was completely alien to me.

I recognized Altar, sure, but the rest...?

“Hm...?” Suddenly, I felt my hand touch something. Looking down, I saw a large one-handed axe with its blade covered in a black cloth.

“...What’s this doing here?” The thing I’d touched was the nameless axe that had blown my arm away the moment I even tried to use it in my first match against Rook. It really hadn’t seemed like I could put it to good use, so I’d put it away in my inventory. “Nemesis, did you take this out?”

“I certainly did not... Speaking of which, when did it leave your inventory, I wonder?”

So, what—was I supposed to believe that it had escaped by itself?

Actually, now that I thought about it, that was pretty believable. I already knew of gear that moved on its own—Gardranda being the most obvious example.

I looked intently at the nameless axe. Since it was covered in a cloth I couldn’t remove, the blade’s actual shape was hard to make out, but I felt like it resembled the axe I’d seen in the dream.

I’d experienced something like this before, so I had a guess about what had happened.

“Did you show me a dream? Like Gardranda did?” Obviously, the axe did not answer my question.

“What is this about, Ray?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Nemesis’s worried question made me realize something, though—the memory of my dream must not have been shared with her, just like with Gardranda.

This meant that this axe was indeed the one from my dream, and that it showed events from its creation. I spent a few moments pondering this.

“...Nemesis, I’m kinda hungry,” I said. “Would you mind bringing me something to snack on from the preservation inventories at the cafeteria? I wanna stay here and think a little longer.”

“Very well. Wait here.” Nemesis, now out of the crest, dashed off the stage and into the building.

I looked at the axe again.

“It’s just you and me now,” I said, addressing the axe. “Can you talk?” I posed another question, but once again received no answer. It wasn’t even moving like Gardranda did.

It seemed like the axe was nothing but a mere weapon, and I was starting to feel that maybe the dream was completely unrelated—that I was overthinking things.

But if that dream was shown to me by this axe, and if it had shown something that had actually happened, the implications could be huge.

If the dream was meant to show me the axe’s origin, that meant this weapon was another work by the creator of Altar itself. If that was true, then it must have been on the same level as that revered blade.

“...Or, at least, it could’ve been.”

I recalled what the Blacksmith said.

“One will become the crowning work.”

“While the other will find its place among the refuse.”

And then, the Blacksmith had picked up Altar.

That had been his answer. The Blacksmith had chosen Altar, and Altar was the weapon that had become their crowning work. In the creator’s eyes, at least, this axe had been rejected and was now nothing but refuse.

That was why they’d abandoned it without even giving it a name.

That’s kinda irresponsible, isn’t it? I thought.

Even if they couldn’t make it into their life’s masterwork, I felt like this axe at least deserved to have a name. If the dream wasn’t just some random fantasy or delusion, that meant this axe had enough of a mind to show others its own past.

In that case, it might actually resent the fact that its creator hadn’t even graced it with a name.

Also, my axe had a different color than it did in the dream. The Blacksmith was working on a pure white axe that was slightly transparent. This axe as I had it now, however...was drenched in the color of blood.

What could have caused this change? Did its lack of a name have something to do with it?

Even now, my Grudge-Soaked Greaves were absorbing the grudge stored within this weapon. Did that mean it would be white again once the grudge was gone?

I had no way of knowing if that was true. Gouz-Maise had already sucked up a whole lot of grudge from it, though, and I didn’t see even the slightest change in its color.

I sighed. I didn’t even know if it made sense for me to start feeling bad for this axe—this cursed weapon.

But looking at it as it was now after seeing that dream...it did leave a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

“Well, I guess I can consider it a quest.” I tapped the axe’s grip with my finger. “I’ll eventually figure out how to give you back your color. And I know I’m not your creator, but I’ll think of a name to call you by, at least for now.”

Let the quest...begin!

It seemed kinda weird to give myself a quest, but whatever.

The axe didn’t react to my words—not with speech or any other kind of noticeable change.

Maybe the dream I’d seen really was completely unrelated, but I didn’t really care. I’d give it back its color and grant it a name because I wanted to, and that was it.

I’d probably end up thinking of a name over the next few days or something, though. There was no time limit, so I figured I might as well take my time.

“Ray, I brought some sandwiches and tea,” said Nemesis as she returned with the breakfast, snacking on it as she spoke.

“Thanks, but...don’t walk while eating. We’ll have to clean it up, you know?”

“Hrmm...I suppose being in an arena makes me feel as though I’m going on a culinary tour of some event or other...”

Always about the food, huh? Well, I couldn’t say it wasn’t like her.

“Anyway, once we finish breakfast, we’re going straight to the central arena. The first four matches are before noon.”

“That is true. Heh heh heh...I cannot wait. Tonight, I thirst for blood!”

“It’s still morning.” Following this familiar exchange, the two of us—plus Smol Gar—had our breakfast.

This was the start of the opening day of The Tournaments. The full event would take ten days in Dendro time, and this was the first part.

It was a huge occasion in Altar, and it was bound to result in many chance encounters and a whole lot of drama.

At that point, however, I had no idea that my greatest battle would be one I never could’ve seen coming.

Chapter One: The First Battle

Paladin, Ray Starling

The Tournaments would be held on every day of a ten-day period.

One Tournament could have a maximum of 256 participants, all of whom would have registered themselves and signed their Contracts ahead of time. Since Masters might have real-life circumstances or other factors that would prevent them from participating, those who didn’t make it to their fight by the designated time would be removed from their slot in The Tournaments. A lottery would then be held to determine their replacement, with anyone who still held a slot in the rest of the competition being ineligible.

The first four fights of The Tournaments—the preliminaries—would be staged using the barrier function that accelerated the flow of time within it. Then, from the fifth battle onward—when all but sixteen of the day’s participants had been eliminated—The Tournaments would switch back to a proper show with an actual audience. This was meant to save time, as showing every single fight would be so time-consuming that the whole thing would take much more than a single day. Even with this arrangement, though, the finals wouldn’t happen until evening—but that might have been the best time for them anyway.

The preliminaries also had one rule that the actual Tournaments did not—specifically, we weren’t allowed to know whom we would be fighting.

The brackets were randomized, and they would already be set up by the time we’d have our first battles. However, they would only be made public when we would have our top sixteen.

There were multiple reasons for this, but one of them was controlling information.

In addition to accelerating time, the barriers that would be used for the preliminaries would also prevent anyone outside from looking in. That would make it impossible to see any of the battles or find out what the other contestants were capable of. That was a big reason why we weren’t allowed to know whom we’d be fighting until we actually stepped out to face them—if the bracket was revealed any earlier, we’d be able to investigate our upcoming opponents and find out what they could do. If they were famous enough, we could even prepare for the fights by changing our gear to hard counter them. For example, if our opponent specialized in fire magic, we could give ourselves an advantage by equipping armor or accessories that gave fire resistance.

I’d known about the importance of metagaming since my time in high school. The president of the EGRS had made sure of that.

Anyway, needless to say, I was no exception, and I had no idea whom I’d be fighting first.

The final brackets would be revealed when only sixteen of us were left. This was because if the remaining contestants weren’t already famous, the probabilities of any one person winning would be affected by whoever they’d defeated in the preliminaries. It was the kind of consideration you’d expect from the City of Duels.

Well, none of this actually changed what we contestants had to do. No matter whom we were up against, we’d just have to win the four preliminary battles and try to achieve victory in the actual Tournament afterward.

The other contestants and I were now in the waiting rooms, waiting on our turns. Since there were a bunch of these, we were placed among those we wouldn’t fight in the preliminaries.

“Hm...” I wasn’t going to be fighting anyone here, at least for now, but for some reason...I could sense them staring at me.

“I see nothing surprising about that,” said Nemesis. “You have become quite famous.”

“KSHAA!”

Smol Gar was chomping on my hair again with a loud munching sound. I couldn’t tell if she was agreeing with Nemesis or not.

“Yeah...even I’m pretty aware of that by now,” I said. My battles against Dryfe’s Superiors—with the added exaggerations—had become well-known, and the others here were reasonably wary of me. Everybody must’ve been wondering what they’d do if they ended up fighting me outside of the preliminaries.

To be honest, though, I wasn’t sure if I’d even make it that far.

In this tournament, being famous was a huge disadvantage. Anyone I had to fight would know my abilities the moment I stepped into the arena. Even if they weren’t able to prepare gear that countered mine, they would still have an advantage. This was exactly what I’d experienced during The Anniversary.

I did have a few things going for me, though—namely, the fights would all take place inside an arena. I was bad at long-range combat, so the fact that we would always be close enough for me to play most of my cards was a real advantage. I even had the option of equipping my Storm Visage and filling the arena with Hellish Miasma. Now that would really give me the upper hand.

“...A truly vile thought,” said Nemesis.

Yeah, if I did it in the actual Tournament, the audience would probably boo me real hard, I thought. Especially since the miasma would probably make it impossible to see anything.

“A Paladin who forces his opponents to duel in a cloud of poison gas...quite the concept.”

Honestly, my fellow freshmen in college already think I’m some kind of devil-eating berserker. I doubt too many people would be surprised if I did do something like that.

“...Anyway, it’s almost our turn,” Nemesis said.

The contestants were being called up pretty quickly—probably because of the barrier’s effect that sped up time. Some new numbers were called just a minute after the previous ones had stepped inside, and even the longest waits weren’t longer than five minutes. Considering that this wasn’t even the only waiting room, it was all going pretty fast.

At this point, it looked like everyone’s first four battles would be over before noon.

“Ray Starling, it’s your turn next.”

“Okay.” Called by the arena’s staff, I stood up from my chair.

“How exciting,” said Nemesis as she switched to her sword form.

“KSHAA!” Smol Gar hissed regrettably as she undid the summoning effect and became my Miasmaflame Bracers once again.

I equipped my Storm Visage and put up the hood of my Black Warcoat. Now fully prepared, I left the waiting room. I heard words like “Dark Lord” and “Devil-Eater” behind me, but I pretended that I didn’t.

“Please step into the arena,” said the staff member, pointing at the black barrier enveloping the stage. “Your opponent is already inside.”

“All right.”

I supposed that having us both enter at different times was another way to prevent us from knowing our opponents.

“All right...let’s see what kind of demons lie in wait for us.”

“I am quite satisfied with one demon, thank you very much,” Nemesis said.

Oh yeah. We’ve already got Gardranda, I thought. Though, in this tournament we’re fighting for the Orb containing Stern Face-Tender Heart, Sasage—a demon-type UBM. So if we make it to the end, we’ll be getting a new demon regardless.

With that useless thought in mind, I passed the dark barrier.

While it just looked like a wall of pure darkness from the outside, it was pretty clear when looked at from the inside, like a canopy of transparent glass. The light passing through made it easy to see the entire arena, including the opponent who was about to walk in.

“Oh, there’s my enemy this ti...wait, huh?”

“Huh?”

The person who’d walked to the stage was as surprised as I was.

The reason for that was obvious—we were already acquainted.

“Now that’s some dangerous-lookin’ gear you’re wearing. You’re Ray Starling, aren’t you?”

“And you’re...Lang, right?” It was one of the Masters who’d taken to the skies with me during the battle against Monochrome. He was also a member of Riser’s Babylonian Battlegroup and had fought alongside Kasumi’s trio during King of Thieves’ terrorist attack on Altea.

What were the odds of getting him as my first opponent?

“That’s me. Hey, you mind if I call you just ‘Ray’?”

“Not at all.”

“Thanks. Heh heh...but man, I sure got the short end of the stick this time, huh?”

“Short end of the...?” What did he think I was, anyway?

“I didn’t join the tournament for nothin’, though. I won’t give up without a fight,” he said, using Instant Equip to take out a lance.

“I’m not planning to lose either,” I replied as I brandished Nemesis and hopped onto Silver’s back. Silver counted as equipment, so I could “equip” him here with no problem.

I used Reveal on Lang, but didn’t get much out of it. I could see his job, but his stats were hidden. That meant he was using something to hide them, and my skill level was too low to counter it. I’d done a similar thing to hide the accessory I’d put on as a replacement for the usual Brooch.

That wouldn’t help much in this case, though. Just as I’d feared, I ended up facing an enemy who recognized me right off the bat. It was best to assume he knew about my combat style, Counter Absorption use limit and all. The exact same thing had happened during The Anniversary.

I, on the other hand, didn’t know the first thing about Lang’s combat style. I could recall him riding a hippogryph back in Torne, but Monochrome had taken him by surprise and given him the death penalty before he could actually do any fighting. Practically speaking, I had almost zero information on him.

Since he’d died from a single hit from the laser—albeit to a critical body part—I could assume he wasn’t an END build, at least. This was supported by his Gale Rider job, so it was pretty obvious that he was focused on AGI.

“Ten seconds.”

“Hm...?” As I heard the staff start the countdown to the beginning of the match, a particular question came to mind.

Lang was a Gale Rider who had a hippogryph as a mount. Tamed monsters could be used in arenas as long as they didn’t exceed the minion capacity.

Why wasn’t he mounted like I was, then?

“Five...four...three...” Before I could come up with an answer to that, the countdown continued. “Two...one...zero!”

And with that, the match began.

“Heaven’s Circuit—Halley, activate!” Lang immediately used a skill named after a comet, drowning the arena in a blue light...

◇◇◇

Central Arena

Large crowds were gathered outside the Central Arena.

Many held tickets to The Tournaments without assigned seats. They had arrived early so they could get the best seats available.

Besides them, many people were simply out enjoying the events and food stalls that had opened up for the occasion, making the area pretty lively even by Gideon standards.

“Ah! Riser!”

“Hm? Oh! It’s been a while, Io.”

Within the crowd, Masked Riser the Kamen Rider had run into a girl he was acquainted with—Io, a member of Death Period. Both of them had been among those who had acted to protect Altea during the recent act of terrorism.

“The other two aren’t with you?”

“We split up to buy some food at the stalls. We’re getting ready to cheer for our leader!” There were quality inventories that preserved food freshness and warmth, so buying food ahead of time presented no issue.

“I see. So he’s in today’s Tournament.”

“Yeah! What about you?! The name of today’s UBM makes it sound like it’d become a mask, doesn’t it?!” Stern Face-Tender Heart, Sasage did indeed sound like it could become a demon—or more specifically oni—mask, but Riser chuckled and rejected the idea.

“I am fairly attached to my current mask, so I’m actually avoiding UBMs that could replace it. Also, while the UBM’s abilities are pretty versatile, they don’t really synergize with my build.”

“I see! It’s like how our bear wouldn’t know what to do with more costumes!”

“I guess it’s kind of similar.” In actuality, all of Shu’s MVP rewards besides one had ended up being costumes anyway, so he never had much choice to begin with—not that these two had any idea about that.

“So I suppose you’re just here to watch the fights, then!”

“Well, that’s part of it, but some members of our clan are participating too. Remember Lang? The hippogryph rider who fought with us in Altea? He’s in this one.”

“Oh, him! You don’t say... Wait...huh? I’m trying to remember—did he use his Embryo then?” Thinking back on the battle against Regina Apis Idea, Io found she did recall a Master who was riding a hippogryph. However, she couldn’t remember seeing him use his Embryo. His weapon, skills, and mount were all standard. She thought that maybe he just had an Embryo that was hard to see, but...

“He didn’t.”

...Riser immediately confirmed that wasn’t the case.

“It’s not like he was holding back, though,” he added. “It’s because his Embryo is...well, he just couldn’t use it back then.”

“Hm?” Io looked at him, puzzled, but Riser, who felt like he couldn’t reveal his own clanmate’s abilities, could do nothing but smile awkwardly.

The words “he just couldn’t use it back then,” though, said everything that needed to be said about it.

Lang’s Embryo—Speeding Comet, Halley—could only be used in a limited number of situations.

Therefore, its category had to be...

◇◇◇

Paladin, Ray Starling

“What...?”

Once the bright light subsided, my surroundings had completely changed.

There was now another boundary within the barrier—a gigantic, spherical cage made of metal the color of the night sky. Between the bars of this cage there was a metallic mesh of the same color, making it impossible for even mice to escape.

Silver and I were now trapped inside here.

Well, maybe “trapped” wasn’t the right word for it. The cage was large—about the same size as the stage itself. It didn’t limit my movements any more than the barrier did. Since this cage was spherical, the surface we were standing on was now slightly inclined, but that was the biggest change.

I tried attacking the cage with Nemesis, but it reflected her without issue. She didn’t even leave a scratch. It looked like destroying it using normal methods would be difficult.

“This is...” If this cage was an Embryo, its category must’ve been...

“Type Castle.” Nemesis finished my thought. This had to be a building Embryo. I hadn’t fought one of these since Franklin’s.

I’d heard that Castle types were rarely suited for direct combat. Many of them acted as a base or had abilities focused on crafting, and they couldn’t be moved by any means except by returning them to the crest and placing them elsewhere.

Franklin’s Pandemonium was a Castle Embryo that produced and stored monsters, and since it had legs, it could be used like a fleet carrier.

But this one...

“I see. A cage-like Castle would be useful in combat,” said Nemesis.

Obviously, a Castle that trapped your opponent would be an asset in battle. But...this one seemed a bit too big to feel like it “trapped” me, exactly. It covered the entire stage, so if it was supposed to limit my movement, that completely defeated the purpose.

And actually...where was Lang himself, anyway?

“Ha ha ha! This ain’t a cage, and it ain’t just a Castle.”

I heard a voice above me. At the very top of the spherical cage, haloed by the sun’s light, I saw a unique-looking silhouette.

“This one’s Type is...Chariot/Castle.” The figure was Lang, sitting on a large motorbike decorated with a ram on the front.

A motorbike sticking to the upper part of a sphere, and a rider sitting on it. Lang’s face was concealed, but rather than a tokusatsu hero’s mask, Lang was wearing a helmet like the ones used by racers.

“...A hybrid,” I said. His Embryo was both a Chariot—the motorbike—as well as a Castle—the cage.

This mix of spherical cage and motorbike reminded me of something I’d heard of before.

“This is a Globe of Death...!”

“You know about them? Guess I won’t have much explaining to do, then!”

A Globe of Death was a type of stunt where performers rode motorbikes inside a huge sphere made of metal mesh. Since it involved driving at high speeds without even knowing which way was up or down, it was extremely difficult and dangerous.

If this was Lang’s ult, this “Halley” Embryo must’ve been based on this exact stunt.

“...Weren’t you a hippogryph rider?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, this baby only works inside its cage,” Lang said. “I need Pete—that’s my hippogryph—so I can move around outside.”

So the hippogryph was just his spare mount, and Lang was at his strongest when he was in this cage and on that motorbike. That explained why he hadn’t used it during the battle with Monochrome—this cage sure didn’t look like it could fly.

“I heard you were like a junior Riser, and I guess that includes riding a motorcycle, huh?” I said.

“Hell yeah!” he replied with a laugh.

It really stuck out to me that he’d actually told me about his Embryo. After he’d used his ult, I’d lost sight of him for a moment, and that would have been a good opportunity for him to attack me by surprise. Had he felt that it would be unfair if I didn’t know his abilities like he knew mine?

This focus on fighting fair and square was just like Riser too.

“Anyway, I guess we should get this started, huh?” Lang said as he grasped the handle and revved up his Halley. As the engine let out a roar, the mufflers released a black smoke.

“...Yeah,” I replied. I made Silver use Wind Hoof to create a compressed air barrier. Instead of completely surrounding us, I made it holed like the metal sphere.

Then, I had my right Miasmaflame Bracer let out its Hellish Miasma. The spray of gas flowed out through the gaps in my barrier.

I instantly noticed that none of it was escaping through the metallic mesh, which made me suspect that it not only bound us physically with the visible cage, but also had some of the properties of a non-physical barrier.

“I said I got the short end of the stick, but I’m not gonna lie—the idea of fighting Ray Starling the Unbreakable has got me pretty excited.” Lang was giving me the same kind of vibe that I’d felt from the many duel rankers I’d sparred against. I could sense him smiling under that mask.

“Word of advice: try not to blink,” he said as he revved up his ride again. “My Halley...is pretty fast.”

The moment he revved a bit harder, he disappeared from sight.

My eyes widened. The trail I could see at the edge of my vision made it clear that it wasn’t teleportation, but actual extreme speed.

And I wasn’t using “extreme” lightly. I hadn’t even blinked, yet I’d already lost sight of him.

“Ah! Behind you!” Nemesis warned me, but I felt an impact before I could even turn around.

“Gh...!” The attack was so heavy it blew me and Silver away. Despite the compressed air barrier sheltering us, we both took a considerable amount of damage.

And that wasn’t all. We were sent flying all the way to the opposite part of the cage.

However, before we could actually hit the wall, a silhouette approached us.

It was Lang on his bike. I couldn’t see it before because the sunlight was drowning it out, but the bike was a blueish-white color, making it look like an actual comet speeding toward us.

The distance between us was quickly diminishing. “Nemesis!”

“Of course!” She activated Counter Absorption, and Lang drove right into it.

The damage that was supposed to reach us, as well as his kinetic energy, was taken by the barrier, briefly stopping him in his tracks.

“Purgatorial Flames!” I held up my left hand toward Lang and doused him in fire.

He quickly tried to turn away and evade it, but the fire reached him first.

“Damn it!” With his bike and rider suit singed, Lang accelerated and drove away from us. He was driving straight toward the inner wall of the spherical cage. He quickly reached a speed where I could barely see him anymore and instead of crashing into it, he began driving straight up the incline instead.

“Ah! SILVER!” Silver quickly used Wind Hoof to take refuge in the middle of the sphere, and a moment later a blue-white silhouette roared through the spot where we’d just been at a speed that not even sound could keep up with.

“...I see,” said Nemesis. “This sphere is a space where he never has to slow down.”

A Globe of Death was a stunt where the riders reached extreme speeds and spun around the inside surface of the mesh sphere until they were unable to differentiate up from down. Because of this, Lang could accelerate and crash into his opponents from anywhere as long as they were standing on the sphere.

The open space in the middle of the sphere seemed safe, but I didn’t feel like I could rely on it too much. Since this was Lang’s Embryo and this was his home turf, it was best to assume that he had some sort of counter to anyone who took refuge in the interior space.

He was still racing around the edge right now, but he would probably do something else soon.

“But man...” I said, trailing off. Lang’s speed really was insane. From what I could tell, it was considerably greater than even Marie’s, who easily broke the sound barrier.

And not only was he fast; he easily turned this speed into offensive power. If I weren’t an END build and hadn’t increased my HP with my new VDA, I might’ve gotten some bad injury-based debuffs, and my situation would’ve been pretty dire. Silver was slightly damaged too and couldn’t move as fast as usual.

“A high-rank job with a high-rank Embryo who reaches a speed like this...” said Nemesis. “I reckon there must be more to it.”

“Yeah...” There were multiple ways that enhancements to an Embryo’s abilities could be implemented, and the ones I was familiar with were “extra costs,” “conditions,” “uncontrollability,” and “limitations.”

“Extra costs” were obviously anything that enhanced skills or gave buffs using something other than MP or SP. Nemesis’s damage counter could be considered one of these.

“Conditions” were the—well, special conditions that had to be fulfilled in order for the enhancement to have an effect. In Nemesis’s case, Like a Flag Flying the Reversal was a good example.

“Uncontrollability” was trading control for raw output—in other words, discarding control over something, perhaps even making it dangerous to yourself, in exchange for increasing its power. Nemesis had nothing like this, but Miasmaflame Princess: Gardranda could be considered as such.

And finally, “limitations” were just that—anything that limited the scope or use of an ability. These included an ability having a set amount of uses or only being usable in certain environments. Needless to say, this included the use limits on my Counter Absorption.

I was pretty sure that Lang’s Halley also had to be operating under some limitations. He’d said that the bike could only be used within the metal sphere. So, by limiting where it could be used, Halley greatly enhanced its speed and charging ability as a Chariot.

The flaw with this arrangement was that it couldn’t do anything against anyone outside the cage, making Lang completely vulnerable to people with wide-range firepower, and they didn’t have to be as powerful as Shu to threaten him.

This weakness was what gave him all this speed and charging potential—but in a duel, this weakness barely meant anything.