“You’ll never kill ! I’ll kill myself before you can, and bring all of you down with ! Fufufu! Hahaha!”
Andreu’s loud shout beats the chorus in volu, and it reaches my position. Then, before the chanting drowns us again with its music, the right side of the Auditorium is filled with bright light, followed by an explosion.
“Hehe, he blew himself up yet again...” I chuckle.
Andreu likes to pretend he hates it, but he’s always looking forward to an excuse to use his ultimate skill. If he has to die, he wants it to be by his own hand.
“Hahaha, you missed! Better luck next ti! Lily, Lemon, the ti’s almost up, you must hurry!”
As I thought, he’s buying us as much ti as possible. Using his triggered skill as an extra life, and thanks to the brief invulnerability from Grand Finale, he has bought us two ritual cooldowns’ worth of ti. Now that he’s weak and useless, I’m sure he’s intentionally provoking the chanting mobs to target him with a third.
He likes to act like a fool, but he knows what’s best for the team and isn’t afraid to sacrifice himself. That’s why I like to play with my brother so much.
“I can’t waste his effort,” I slap my cheeks, “It’s ti for the Great Tentacle Queen’s show! Hehehe!”
I’ll show him and Marta how good I am! And then, they’ll pat on the head and praise ! That’s sothing I must achieve!
Using my tentacles, I freely move through the irregular terrain. They’re pretty useful. I can use them to close gaps by extending and retracting them. They're like fully controllable grapple hooks, and I like them, hehehe!
Now it’s up to Laura and to defeat enough chanters to stop the ritual. Andreu, with the reduced stats, is pretty useless right now.
“Look here, you useless pricks! Don’t you feel ashad? You’ve targeted with an unavoidable, instant-death skill, not once, but twice. Twice! And I’m still alive. Sha on you! Sha on your family! Sha on your cow!”
Though it doesn’t stop him from being annoying towards his enemies.
Hehehe. AIs can’t understand him, but giving away his position by shouting is enough to make him their target. As long as Laura and I don’t start shouting louder than him, we should be fine.
“Lily…”
Lately, she’s been acting weird. We agreed I wouldn’t interfere with her, and she wouldn’t try to steal Andreu from when playing the ga. But lately, she’s been trying to break our pact!
Guuh… it makes angry!
“Do you like the sight of my ass? If you want to do sothing about it, co and make regret it. Or are you too scare–”
Andreu’s loud voice suddenly disappears. He did his job without hesitating.
“Nooo! Brotheeeeer…!” I wipe my falling tears. “I’ll… I’ll avenge you!”
The ti’s up. The race’s final stretch is upon us. A race to kill, or be killed.
“Do you like the sight of my ass? If you want to do sothing about it, co and make regret it. Or are you too scare–”
Fufufu. How silly he is. It isn’t like he can show his ass in DMA, but he still acted like that, and died in the middle.
“Aah, I want to watch the replay to see his face…” But I can’t right now. It’ll have to wait until we finish the training. “I wonder how many chanters remain.”
Compared to the start, the volu has fallen significantly. That’s why we could hear Andreu’s voice from the other side of the room before he died. I killed more than fifteen, and if I assu Andreu and Clara killed a similar amount, this would make about fifty dead chanters.
The ritual requires twenty monsters with the sa skill… We’re almost there!
“But it’s getting harder to find the remaining ones…”
It’s always the sa. The fewer remaining objectives, the harder it is to find them.
I use Blink towards the ceiling, and as soon as my body teleports, gravity takes hold and I start falling. I’ve been doing this for a while, as the higher position is great for spotting enemies.
From this higher position, the massive magic circle hanging above the Auditorium is perfectly visible. That must be the magic circle of the chanting ritual. Everything below it must be a valid target.
Shining in gold, the magic circle blends with the other decorative elents, so I’m sure Andreu and Clara haven’t noticed it.
“Hmm… There! Oh, and there’s another one!”
How lucky of to find not one but two chanters! Let’s go and kill them quickly.
One after the other, the two chanters die at my hands without any resistance. This isn’t funny; to kill unresisting enemies isn’t to my liking. I know it isn’t very demon-like, demons should enjoy killing the weak and inflict as much suffering on them as possible, but still…
While I scan the area, searching for more victims, I see Clara using her tentacles to reach one of the boxes. Watching her makes feel a pinch of remorse, but I ignore it and continue searching for prey.
I’m sorry, Clara. I know we had an agreent. But I’ve waited for too long… I don’t want to waste any more ti. If you’re to bla soone, bla your brother.
“Ooh…!”
A surprise exclamation escapes from my lips when the chanting suddenly stops. The dead chanter Clara just released from her tentacle’s grip must have been the last one we needed. When I look up, the golden magic circle has disappeared too.
We’ve cleared the biggest hurdle, but this wasn’t the last one.
“Can we clear this without Baldy and Mad Rat?”
Having two out of four players remaining ans we’ve lost half our strength. But when it cos to actual battle, numbers are also part of the strength, which ans we’ve actually lost way more than half our power.
Regardless of what happens next, the most important thing to do right now is to reunite with Clara.
“Let’s stop the training here.”
A sudden voice rings out from above. With majestic wings and an imposing posture, holding her precious sword, Andreu and Clara’s older sister, Anthemia, slowly falls from above.
She locks her gaze with mine.
“I’ve seen enough. And with two dead party mbers, continuing the training would make no sense. We’ll stop here. Let’s review what happened and prepare for the next training session as soon as possible.”
There will be more? More of this? I now start to understand Andreu’s reluctance. His sister is relentless.
“Hmm… not bad. Not great, but not the worst. Their team has potential, but they need ti to reach it.”
After watching Andreu and Clara’s team move about my dungeon, I decide it’s ti to intervene. With two dead players, continuing the training would be a waste of everyone’s ti, mine included.
“I just have to push them until they reach it, even if they hate .”
I touch a few ga screens and appear inside their Dungeon Invasion instanced dungeon. Appearing from above them, right below the ceiling, I let my body float down with my wings extended.
“Let’s stop the training here.”
We exchange a few more words, and everyone leaves the dungeon. There’s no way to talk with dead players, so we must solve this first.
Once everyone is out, I invite them back into my dungeon as guests one by one. I make them spawn directly in the sa room.
“Mar–”
As soon as she appears, Clara opens her arms and jumps at , ready to hug . But I raise my hand to stop her.
“Lemon, use the proper na inside the ga.”
I hate stopping her at a ti like this, but I need to. I can’t have my little sister acting like a fool in front of other players. She needs to grow up.
“Yes…! Anthemia!”
Clara repeats the sa motions, this ti with even more force. She slams into with enough force to push most players, but not enough to push . I hug her back and pat her head.
To think we could have been like this all along if I had supported her that ti… Bad life choices.
“Whooaaah! Is this the famous ‘Heaven’s Council’!? I never thought the day would co when I could see it in person…! This is amazing!” Andreu’s friend excitedly looks around like a country bump. “I’ll brag to all my friends about this, hahaha!”
“What friends? Do you even have any friends other than us?”
“Shut up, Andreu!”
I hate these kinds of people. They act all high and mighty all the ti, but imdiately lower their heads when soone important or famous shows up. If you give them the tiniest chance, they imdiately start ass-kissing you. They’re disgusting.
This is just the second ti I’ve seen him, so I’m not sure yet, but I’ll keep an eye on him.
From what I’ve seen so far, he’s the team’s weak link. He’s the most unreliable and weak mber. Depending on what I see during the training, I’ll have to have a serious talk with Andreu about his friend.
Still hugging , Clara looks up at and asks, “Hey, sister. What’s this ‘Heaven’s Council’ he’s talking about?”
“Nothing important. Now, sit down. There’s much to talk about, and little ti.” I point at the chairs around the table and take the most important spot for myself.
This place isn’t connected to my dungeon, and it’s where I bring other players and interviewers when the etings must happen inside DMA. It’s also the place I bring them when they want to talk with ‘Anthemia’ instead of the real .
Since it’s been on screen quite a few tis, it isn’t uncommon for other people to recognize this place.
But almost none dare to act like a fool in front of , regardless of how excited they are. Look at him! Andreu’s friend continues to gawk around like an idiot, even while seated. He doesn’t even notice when I glare at him, uncomfortable with his actions.
I’ll make him regret his impertinence. I’ll personally see that he’s pushed to his limit during practice.
While I think to myself, Clara, Andreu, and the other girl chat a bit.
“I’ll be clear,” everyone shuts up and looks at when I open my mouth. “Today, you failed.”
Their expressions change and twist in interesting ways, but I ignore them. I continue before they can say anything.
“If I had to rate you, I’d say your chances of getting into the real event are about one percent.” I make another pause to enjoy their faces. “But it wasn’t terrible. There’s much room to improve. Now that I’ve seen how you play, it’s ti for the real training.”
“T-that wasn’t the real training…?” Asks Andreu.
“Of course not. This was just for to watch you and identify where you need to improve.”
Our conversation continues while I explain what they did wrong and what they did well. Their biggest flaw is the lack of preparation. Relying on luck isn’t sothing they can do if they’re serious about this.
As much as I enjoyed watching Andreu getting himself killed, struggling to stay alive just to inevitably fail as predicted, it was clear they didn’t plan it. It was just sothing they did because Andreu suddenly ca up with an idea, even if it sohow worked in the end.
Tsk! I’ll never understand why so many of his crazy plans sohow end up working. It’s unfair to everyone who takes any ga seriously!
“But don’t worry. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you’re one of the best teams in the 4vs4 category. I’ll make you one of the best teams, even if it’s the last thing I do. I swear upon my na.”
Even if it ans I’ll spend so much ti with them that I won’t be able to focus on myself.
Even if I have to withdraw from the event.
Even if I lose my place as a top player.
“...”
Loud gulping sounds co from all around , but everyone stays quiet.
I thought about this, and I ca to an answer: that’s the least I can do for my siblings. As compensation for ignoring Clara when she most needed it… and rewarding Andreu for being a better sibling than , regardless of how much it pains to admit it.
There were places in so dungeons in DMA treated as legendary by the player community. Maybe it was because they appeared in the dia. Maybe because they were extrely well hidden. Or maybe they were an incredibly hard place to reach. Regardless of the reason, players treated them as special, and having a picture showing their Champion inside that place was treated as a great honor.
Reviews
All reviews (0)