kscans

Chapter 816 - Shine and Show, O Rare One. Art Thou Worthy of Being Entrusted with Love? Part One

"We still don't have any time, and even I don't fully understand the details, so I'll just explain what's necessary… what's about to happen, and what I need you combatants to do, okay?"

Like a cube bursting outward in six directions, the walls and ceiling receded at a speed even I couldn't follow, and in a single breath—the cramped room transformed into a space so impossibly vast that its 'size' alone inspired a sense of awe.

"Clearing 'Green Connect' isn't a 'challenge,' it's a 'rescue.' 'Support' or 'assistance' might fit better. Basically, this child is trying to do something."

We were only able to perceive the transformation because a light had appeared, blowing away the darkness.

Or rather, it was as if the brightness of a display had been turned up; we could see even without a light source. It was dark, yet it didn't feel dark—an indescribable sensation, as if 'color' was being directly slammed into our consciousness from within the gloom.

"What's being asked of us is, to put it simply, debugging. We need to fix the broken system and help it fulfill the 'role' it's stuck error-looping on."

And so, at the center of this ridiculously huge space that we could see into forever…

Nia, who had collapsed in front of the 'laptop' and was likely ensnared by a massive sense of sensory fatigue, organized her thoughts, her expression revealing how hard her unmoving head was working.

"So, if I put the solution in extremely simple terms… we need to gather the resource—Mana—that it can't integrate anymore because of all the overlapping errors."

As the situation continued to shift from one phase to the next without a moment's pause, leaving us to watch in stunned silence, the artisan, though utterly exhausted, delivered the news with utmost seriousness.

"What we have to do hasn't changed—just keep defeating bosses, infinitely…!"

""—…Defeat… you say…""

My voice, and Natsume-senpai's, overlapped hoarsely as we looked out. In this enormous space, which could without exaggeration swallow a 'city' whole, lights began to appear.

One, two, three…—surpassing ten, then a hundred, continuing on without end.

"Sorry. Most of its functions are broken, so there wasn't a choice…"

Faint lights welled up from the void, and under them, polygons began to gather in a very game-like fashion… an effect that repeated itself a countless number of times.

"All I could do was one thing. On behalf of 'this child,' which has been stuck mechanically repeating a single procedure forever, I had to forcefully bring them here."

"Forcefully…"

"Bring them?"

"The teleportation gate generation function that all dungeons have when they're cleared… I forcibly—activated all of them, from one end to the other, all at once."

""……………………"

"And, um… I set the forced teleportation target to boss enemies, and the destination to here."

""……………………………………"

"What we need is the same as before. The 'Dungeon Core' linked to each boss."

""…………………………………………………………"

Light, light, light-light-light.

And then, one after another—a pandemonium of monsters and fiends began to take shape.

"…………Nia."

"Yes…"

"I was just wondering… couldn't you have specified a range, or adjusted the number of summons…?"

"Um, to put it simply, the only button still working was the 'Indiscriminate All-Call Button'…"

"…I see. Understood. You really had no choice, then. I get it. You did a great job, you're amazing."

And so, first I gave up.

"…Nia?"

"Yes…"

"Was it impossible to just stop after you dealt with the time limit…?"

"Well, the order of events was reversed… Um, how do I put it… I summoned the bosses from the mana pools all over this world—the dungeons—and in the instant the 'gates' connected, I scraped together the bit of mana that flowed in and barely managed to run the program to secure our safety, kind of…"

"…………To think you managed to string all that together in the heat of the moment and in such a short time. …I get it. No complaints. You did wonderfully."

And so, Natsume-senpai also gave up.

""Well then… I guess we have no choice.""

Having steeled our resolve one by one, we turned back to the collapsed MVP with a smile and stepped forward.

"The fact that they're spawning in a somewhat fixed direction is a stroke of luck in this mess, I suppose."

"It's a bit too much of a fan-shape to call it 'one direction,' though…"

"No complaining. Or are you planning to complain to Nia after she worked so hard?"

"That would make me a real bastard. On the contrary, I have nothing but praise. As expected of my personal artisan."

"Save the doting for when you two are alone."

"Does doting even count if there's no third party around…?"

Beside my senior, who was testing the feel of the 'threads' wrapped around her ten fingers, I performed some deliberately exaggerated stretches to force my heart to calm down.

"Well, Nia went above and beyond and we got here first… but the others are probably just as crazy. I'm sure they'll figure it out soon and reinforcements will come flooding in."

"My own personal magitech artisan is working hard on that front, too. I couldn't agree more. At worst, we just have to risk our lives to buy a few dozen seconds, right?"

The rumbling of the earth grew closer.

This impossibly vast space was likely a type of dungeon, functionally the same as a single boss room. And with such a countless horde of monsters gathered… it wouldn't be surprising if ten or twenty of them had superior senses.

Thus, in a wide-open space with no cover, there was no way they wouldn't notice us. And since they are 'enemies,' they would, with few exceptions, attack players on sight. If one started running, a chain reaction would follow.

And so, a great tsunami of a hundred demons was formed.

The sight of countless, varied monstrosities surging forward was a vision of hell, carrying with it a pressure and sense of death that surpassed even the remnants of the Crimson Circle we once faced.

"Hey, Haru."

"What is it, Natsume-senpai?"

Therefore, if anyone…

"I'm… a little… unbelievably scared right now."

…were to let their voice and body tremble, there would be no reason to laugh.

"I wholeheartedly agree…"

Because I was the same, able only to tremble and concur.

—And yet, but however.

"…I'm only going to say this once, so listen up. In this ridiculous situation, having you, the Acrobat, next to me is… the fifth most reassuring thing, right after the Sword Queen, Mei, the Sword Saint, and Gin-san!"

"Fifth place, huh? That's some pretty high praise, isn't it!"

I ignite the flames, and plunge a blade into my own heart.

My senior sent black flames racing along her 'threads' at the exact same moment I unsheathed my rabbit short-sword and unhesitatingly blew away my own HP.

And so, two 'crowns,' each embodying their owner's name, shone brilliantly side-by-side.

And what we screamed was—

""Come on and get us!!!!!""

—nothing but a defiant roar, a war cry as if to tell them to be terrified of us.

---

It's party time.

By the way, the forced teleportation positions of the hundred demons are like this because Nia-chan intervened as much as she could. And the reason they're being teleported one after another, despite it being an all-call, is because Nia-chan barely succeeded in adjusting it to be sequential instead of all at once.

In short, Nia-chan is a genius, got a problem with that?