Chapter 141 -
Beyond the designated door was the interior of a dungeon.
"This place is... the Sky Dungeon, I think?"
The Grade 9 Dungeon.
It seemed this was its top floor.
"You came! I was waiting for you, Shizukuishi Hayate-kun."
The archangel, who had been standing in the center of the room with its eyes closed, opened them and spoke to me.
"You're Megami-sama-chan, right?"
"Yep, that's me. This is the first time we've talked like this, isn't it?"
"I came because you threw down a challenge, but are you possessing a boss character again...? To be honest, I wish you'd stop that."
The Goddess was possessing this dungeon's last boss, Archangel Uriel.
"Sorry about that. To interfere with this world, I have to rely on a vessel like this. But I can't design them to be able to move like this one can."
"Well, if that's the case..."
I guess I had no choice but to accept it.
I don't really get things on a divine scale anyway.
But I still haven't forgiven her for what she did to Undine.
"I'll ask just to be sure, but why did you send a challenge specifically to me this time?"
"Isn't it obvious?! It's because I was frustrated that I lost when I fought you as Undine! That was supposed to be a 'scripted loss event'! You were supposed to lose to me. Of course, I was planning to let you revive with my power the first time."
No wonder her attacks felt so unfair.
I had a feeling she had no intention of letting me win.
"So because I overcame a scripted loss event, you became interested in me."
As a player, it's gratifying to be noticed by the management. Of course, not for bad reasons, like being a cheater.
In a game with millions of players, the fact that the management was paying attention to me got me fired up.
"Hmph. I'm really not going to lose this time, you know."
"You're a selfish goddess, aren't you?"
I readied my weapons as I spoke.
It seemed she had no intention of role-playing as Uriel this time. That meant I had no way of predicting what kind of attacks would come.
Undine used water-based boss skills, and Flora used plant-based boss skills in addition to Undine's ultimate techniques. Following that logic, I might predict she'll use a combination of Uriel's, Flora's, and Undine's skills, but that probably wouldn't be enough.
It would be better to assume she could use the ultimate techniques of every single boss that exists in FWO.
If I didn't consider every possibility, a sudden, unexpected move from the enemy could cause my thoughts to freeze for a moment. That would create a fatal opening, and I would lose to the Goddess.
My only option was to react to everything by reflex.
"Alright, here I gooo! Can you withstand this first?"
"Hm?"
What's with that pose?
An ultimate technique from a stance like that—
"Megami-sama-chan Beam!!"
A massive beam was unleashed.
"Ugh!?"
That was more unexpected than I could have imagined.
I never thought she'd use a skill that wasn't from FWO.
"Whoa. You withstood that? You're pretty good."
That was close.
I was glad I had reinforced my equipment as much as possible.
But if she spams an attack like that, I'm in trouble.
"Next up, a five-shot burst!"
...What?
"My special move, Five-Shot Megami-sama-chan Beeeam!!!"
There was nowhere to dodge.
A desperate situation.
She's dead serious about winning against me.
Right. So that's how it is.
If that's how you want to play, then I have my own ideas and preparations.
I took out a certain piece of equipment.
And I cleaved the beam in two.
"Heeheehee. With this, even Hayate-kun surely can't—huh? What? Why? Why are you unharmed!? It was a direct hit, wasn't it!?"
The Goddess stared in shock at my unscathed form.
The beam had left a scorched mark on the ground all the way to my feet, but behind me, a triangular area of ground remained untouched.
"Hey, what's with that weapon? I've been checking your streams constantly lately, and you never got a weapon like that!"
So she noticed.
And she's been watching my streams, huh.
"It's the divine sword I obtained from a hidden dungeon, Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi."
"Wait a minute. I don't know anything about a hidden dungeon!"
"Even if you say that... It existed in the game, and I have the weapon right here, so..."
A little power-up like this should be within acceptable limits.
"There you go again with your cheats... No, that's not right. I shouldn't just assume everything is a cheat. There's no way that Sadaharu would have missed it."
Sadaharu?
Could she mean Sadaharu-san, the developer of the Four-Sword Style system?
Why was the Goddess saying his name?
"Alright, time to switch gears. I'll show you that even if you can block the Megami-sama-chan Beam, it's meaningless with just one of those."
As the Goddess spoke, her body began to glow.
This is one of Uriel's skills.
I'll ask her about Sadaharu-san after I win.
I focused on the battle.
The fully-upgraded Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi is powerful enough to be viable even in a Grade 10 Dungeon, but I couldn't rely solely on its performance.
My opponent had short charge times and minimal recovery time after using her ultimate techniques, and on top of that, she could use the ultimate techniques of multiple bosses without any limits. She was, without a doubt, the strongest boss character in the history of FWO.
I just hope she doesn't have damage immunity stacked or something.
That would really kill the mood.
But somehow, I had a feeling that wouldn't be the case.
If she really wanted to make the Undine fight an unwinnable scripted loss event, there were plenty of ways to do it, like reducing the player's damage to one-hundredth of its normal value, or just making herself immune to damage altogether.
The fact that she hadn't done that meant she either didn't want to, or someone nearby had stopped her from creating a truly impossible scenario.
"Alright, here I come."
"This time, I'm going on the offensive."
I accelerated with the power of my manipulators and charged forward.
"You have some courage, charging at me. I'll give you that. By the way, I'm a goddess, and Uriel (this girl) is an angel, so she's a lower-class being than me. But we're of the same type. So the sharpness of the skills I can use is on a whole other level. Take this—Shining Force!!"
A giant, shining hand appeared and tried to grab me.
Just grazing it would cause massive damage; getting caught would mean instant death even for a tank.
And it was moving faster than it did in the game.
"Kuh!"
I somehow managed to dodge it while trying to close the distance to the Goddess.
"You're a melee fighter, right? You seem to have some ranged attacks, but basically, as long as I don't let you get close, I'm fine. And with that said, Lord of Hydra!!"
So she's using that one, too!
"I'm going to press the attack right here! Megami-sama-chan Beeeam!!"
Ah, this is checkmate.
At this rate.
I wanted to save it for a little longer, but I have no choice.
Because there's no way I can block all that with just one Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi.
"Hah, hah... T-That has to have done it, right?"
"You've finally shown me an opening."
"—!?"
I sliced off the right arm of the Goddess, who had let her guard down.
"Owww! Wh-why!? Why are you unharmed after taking all that!? And how did you manage to cut through my body, which has its defense boosted to the max?! What kind of trick did you use!?"
"It's all thanks to these guys."
I showed her the two swords in my hands, and the two equipped on my left and right manipulators—a total of four Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi.
"Wh-wh-why do you have four swords that can slice through my beam!!?"
"I never said I only had one. Besides, in FWO, regardless of rarity, the maximum number of weapons you can own is the maximum number your combat class can use. For a Four-Sword Style user like me, the system allows for the simultaneous use of up to four swords, even if they're divine swords."
So of course, I did it.
I farmed the boss repeatedly.
No matter how hard it is to obtain, a true gamer will always want to collect the strongest set of equipment.
I had fought the boss of the hidden dungeon that appeared in Izumo, Yamata no Orochi, over and over again, and obtained four Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi.