Chapter 8 : Raisen Great Dungeon and The Last Trial
“Yaho~, nice to meet you~, Miledi Raisen that’s loved by everyone is here~”
From the gigantic golem equipped with brutal equipment and full body armor and a helmet, whose sharp glint was able to make people freeze, was a random and light greeting. The words that it had said couldn’t be understood, even by Hajime. His mind was somehow trying to escape the reality in front of him. Even Shia and Yue forgot that they were encircled and could only stare blankly with their mouths opened.
Because the trio stiffened, the gigantic golem let out a sullen voice. It was a woman’s voice.
“You know~, because I already gave out a greeting, reply with something already. That’s proper manners, you know? Geez, that’s why youngsters of this generation… … should have more common sense.”
They were words filled with real irritation. Moreover, the gigantic golem was raising its burning right hand and its left hand that held on the thorned iron ball at shoulder height. It was a random and human-like gesture as if it said, “Yare yare daze”, while shrugging its shoulders and shaking its head. But, Hajime and his party were the ones that were truly irritated by it. It was as if they were seeing those annoying sentences again. Although the one that called itself “Miledi Raisen” might be the one behind those words, that woman should have been dead, she was a human after all.
For the time being, Hajime observed his surroundings.
“I am sorry about that. But, Miledi Raisen should be a human and already dead, right? Moreover, I have never heard of a golem with an ego… … that’s why we are surprised, so please forgive us. After that, please explain who you are. Make it brief.”
“Aree~, this person, even under this situation you’re so conceited.”
There was no need to observe anything at all. Rather, he let out a super straight ball. As expected, because of his unexpected reaction, the gigantic golem that called itself Miledi showed a perplexed expression. However, it immediately recovered, it replied to Hajime and his party with a voice that could simply make one imagine it as someone grinning, if it were human.
“Nn~? Miledi-san is a golem-san from the start you know~ To say I was human…”
“I have read a little about you from Oscar’s notes. It’s perfectly written that you’re a human woman, you know? Rather, I don’t want to hear any foolish talk. I already said to make it brief before. Even if you try to obstruct us, what we need to do is still the same. I will turn you into scrap and move on. That’s why, before you can’t make any more ‘gata gata’ sounds, tell us everything.”
“O, oou, because it was my first conversation after a long time, no matter what you say it makes me dance with joy inside. Rather, did you just say Oscar? Don’t tell me, you’ve conquered O-chan’s dungeon?”
“Aa, if it was Oscar Orcus’s dungeon we already conquered it. Rather, it was us who’s supposed to do the asking. If you won’t talk then we’ll fight, you know? Well, it’s not like we need to know anything. Our only objective is the age of Gods magic after all.”
Hajime turned Donner toward the gigantic golem. Although Yue showed a clarifying face, Shia said “Uwa~, he didn’t shake at all~”, in half-surprise and half-amazement while looking at Hajime.
“… … Age of Gods magic you say, then as expected, is that for god slaying? Is it to slaughter and destroy those shitty bastards? If you have captured O-chan’s dungeon, then you know the situation, right?”
“I already said that it was us who’s supposed to do the asking. What we want is the answer, so answer our inquiry from before.”
“This fellow~ is truly conceited~, well, that’s okay~, umm what was it… … Aa, my identity. Uu~n”
“Make it brief. I don’t need a long explanation like Oscar’s.”
“Ahaha, certainly, O-chan’s speech was long~, and there was too much theory~”
The gigantic golem looked up at the ceiling into a far distance, filled with nostalgia. It was truly a golem with human-like movements. Yue gazed at the gigantic golem with her usual expressionlessness, while Shia was restless because of the surrounding golem knights.
“Un, I will say it briefly as you want. I am certainly Miledi Raisen. All the golem’s wonders can be explained with age of Gods magic! If you want to know more, then magnificently try to defeat me! Well something along those lines.”
“In the end, there is no explanation…”
“Hahaha, that was, before you complete the conquest, you won’t receive any information, right? Without that there would be no meaning behind the dungeons, you know?”
This time, the gigantic golem, Miledi Golem, used her finger as if saying, tsk tsk tsk! Although they didn’t know for sure if Miledi Raisen was inside of it, if they excluded the character then the golem had its own charm. Yue boldly muttered, “… … its only problem is the inside”, having the same impression as Hajime.
Finally, about that inside, they still didn’t understand anything in the end. If it was truly Miledi herself, Hajime guessed it must be some kind of residual thought. Hajime hazily remembered from his memory that his classmate, Nakamura Eri, was a necromancer; a job that handles residual thoughts. However, with her necromancy a residual thought that carried a clear intent like this couldn’t be formed. In other words, it was still in the boundary to assume that the established intent of the deceased inside the golem was made by age of Gods magic.
Anyway, it was not a magic that could be used to move to other worlds that he was looking for. So Hajime who was a little disappointed asked a question to the gigantic golem, no Miledi Golem.
“Your age of Gods magic, is it something related to residual thoughts? If that’s so, there is no reason for me to be here.”
“Nn~? That look, do you have other purposes to get age of Gods magic? By the way, my age of god magic is not that one~, I was helped by Ra-kun to establish my soul in this body~”
Hajime’s objective is only to go back to his own world. Because he doesn’t understand anything about souls and thoughts, obtaining an age of the Gods magic that manipulates something like that would be pointless. That said, after he asked about that, Miledi’s reply didn’t match up to his predictions. Even though he didn’t know who Ra-kun was, it was probably one of the “Liberators.” That person gave Miledi Golem Miledi’s soul before she died and established it inside the golem.
“Then, what is your age of Gods magic? Depending on your answer, we’ll return as we are…”
“Nn~ Nn~, do you want to know? Do you really want to know?”
Once again, Miledi asked with a grinning-like voice, and Hajime who was waiting for her reply was irritated by it.
“If you want to know~, answer my question first,”
Only on the last few words in her voice changed. Her frivolous atmosphere up till now vanished, and she carried seriousness instead. Hajime and his party were a little surprised by the change. Hajime asked back without showing that on his expression.
“What is it?”
“What’s your objective? What do you need age of Gods magic for?”
I won’t forgive any falsehood was what her tone implied, even her joking atmosphere totally disappeared when Miledi asked that. That was probably this woman’s true nature. If you think about it, she even challenged the Gods for the sake of the people. That was why she didn’t want to entrust her magic to someone with an unknown purpose. It was different from the will in Orcus’s image recording. No matter if hundreds of years pass by, she intended to keep waiting deep in the dungeon to ascertain the challengers’ purpose. In a way it could be called torture for her. Even her frivolous attitude was a bluff, the real her is someone who has great patience and will, it could be said that she had a sense of responsibility.
Maybe because Yue also thought of her like that, she had been looking at Miledi Golem with a different expression since a while ago. Yue understood well the suffering of someone who was alone in the depths of darkness. That’s why, for Miledi who was determined to leave her soul behind in order to stay in the depths of the darkness, she seemed to feel something more than sympathy.
Hajime looked straight at Miledi Golem’s glinting eyes and replied without any falsehood.
“My objective is to return to my hometown. I was forced into this world by the ones you call mad Gods. I am looking for age of Gods magic that’s capable of transferring people between worlds… … I have no intention of defeating the Gods in your stead. I don’t even have the slightest inclination to risk my life for this world.”
“… …”
For a while Miledi Golem quietly stared at Hajime, then maybe because she reached something she gave a little nod. Afterwards, she only muttered “I see”. And, in the next moment, her serious atmosphere disappeared as if it was an illusion and her frivolity returned.
“Nn~, I see I see. So that’s it~, you’re from a different world~. Un un. That is problematic for you~ Okay, then it’s time for battle! Splendidly defeat me and you will obtain the age of Gods magic!”
“Although your chain of reasoning was so odd that I lost the meaning of it… … just what’s with “then it’s time”. Rather, didn’t you hear my words? If your magic isn’t transition magic there will be no meaning, you know? Or are you saying it is transition magic?”
Miledi only, “Nnfufu~”, let out an unpleasant laugh, then, “That is… …”, answered with a voice filled with too much emphasis as she prolonged her answer. Her appearance resembled Mino**n that tried to inform the Final Answer.
Finally, with his irritation reaching its limit, and because it’d be a battle from now on, Hajime took out Orkan and Miledi shouted the answer she forestalled.
“No~t telling!”
“Die.”
Without asking any more questions, Hajime fired the rockets from Orkan. Leaving trails of sparks, the storm of destruction flew toward Miledi Golem and hit.
ZUGAaAAAN!!
The violent sound of explosions resounded and shook the room. Smoke rose from that explosion.
“Did we do it!?”
“… … Shia, that was a flag.”
Shia who let out “first strike for victory!”, with a joyful look was tsukkomi’ed by Yue. The result: it was just as Yue said. From inside the smoke the burning right hand appeared with a ‘bobah,’ sound and dispersed the smoke.
When the smoke cleared up Miledi Golem appeared, with some parts of both of her forearms broken. Miledi Golem picked up the floating blocks that had drawn near, and they were decomposed to become materials for the parts of her arms that were broken.
“Fufu, what a fast preemptive strike~, come, my age of Gods magic might be what you seek after all~, but because I am strong~, work hard so you won’t die~”
While laughing joyfully, Miledi Golem shot out the flail-type Morningstar in her left hand toward Hajime and his party. It wasn’t thrown. The Morningstar just suddenly flew with tremendous velocity without any starting movement. Perhaps, the gravitational force’s direction was adjusted and made it “fall” just like the other golems.
Hajime and his party avoided the Morningstar by jumping onto a nearby floating block. The Morningstar turned the block that Hajime and his party were previously standing on into minute pieces. Then it turned around and returned to Miledi Golem’s hand.
“Let’s do it! Yue, Shia. Let’s destroy Miledi!”
“Nnh!”
“Affirmative!”
Along with Hajime’s shout, inside one of the Seven Great Dungeons; Raisen Great Dungeon, the last fight began.
The golem knights who raised their large swords in a standby state began to move as if signalled by Hajime’s shout. Just like inside the passage before, they turned toward Hajime and his party and rushed out.
Yue took out a water bottle that was clanking with the other bottles and used it to horizontally mow down her enemies. The water that was pressurized to the limit, rather than water cutter it cut apart the golem knights more like a laser.
“Ahaha, you can do it after all~, but, the enemies are 50 infinitely regenerating knights and me, I wonder if you can handle all of us at the same time~”
While saying that with a sarcastic tone, Miledi fired the Morningstar again. Shia made a big jump, and jumped onto the moving pyramid block’s upper part. Hajime didn’t move from his spot and turned Donner toward the Morningstar and fired rapidly.
DOPAaaNh!
There was only one gunshot sound. However, the bullets that fired numbered six. The attacks were accompanied with a flash aimed only at the approaching Morningstar, striking it with tremendous velocity. It was indeed a metal ball with huge mass, there was not much change even after it was hit by the railgun six times at the same time, but its trajectory deviated away from Hajime by a large margin.
At the same time, Shia jumped from the upper part of the block to Miledi’s overhead, she brought down Doryukken as she fell.
“I already saw that~”
Along with those words, Miledi Golem suddenly moved to the side at a great velocity. She must be “falling” to the side.
“Kuh, you—!”
With her aim off, Shia gritted her teeth and pulled Doryukken’s trigger, then an explosion came out. With the cartridge ejecting from the side, her trajectory was corrected. After spinning three times, a blow that carried significant centrifugal force hit Miledi Golem.
ZUuGAGAN!!
Miledi Golem immediately used her left arm to guard. A tremendous sound of impact came from the left hand. However, as if nothing happened Miledi Golem swiped her left hand horizontally.
“Kyaaaa!!”
“Shia!”
Shia who was hit let out a scream. Somehow she managed to pull Doryukken’s trigger and corrected her pose using its explosive power; additionally, using the recoil she made an emergency landing on the nearby block.
“Hah, you can do it after all. Oi, Yue. Just what kind of training did you make her do?
“… … I only drove her into a corner.”
“… … I see, it was something like polishing her ability to survive to the maximum.”
Hajime used Farsight to confirm Shia who ‘pyon pyon,’ bounced on the blocks to come back, with admiration in his mind. And, on the block Hajime and Yue were on, the golem knights that rushed them was finally could not be held back by Yue alone.
Hajime took out Metherai the Gatling gun from “Treasure Box.” Then, with his back turned to Yue, he unleashed the monster capable of scattering 12,000 deaths per minute.
DOuRURURURURU!!
Its six barrels began rotating as he fired it. While letting out sounds particular to this weapon, a lot of flashes flew straight freely all over the room; while the enemies who met the bullets mid-air were turned into scrap and fell to the bottom. Those that sneaked around to the other side to evade and attack from the blind spot, by a laser of water, were perfectly cut.
More than 40 golem knights fell to the bottom of the room in tragic states in no time. After some time, they would likely finish reconstructing and return to the frontline, but it was good that they won’t be hindrances for a while. That’s right, until the time their boss, Miledi Golem is destroyed.
“Wh-, what was that!? I have never seen nor heard of anything like that!”
Having heard Miledi Golem’s astonished shout, Hajime put Metherai back into “Treasure Box,” then once again he pulled out Donner, and let out a voice that could be heard even by Shia who was at a distance..
“Miledi’s core is at the same place as the heart! Destroy that!”
“W-wh-! How did you know that!?”
Once more, Miledi let out an astonished voice. Surely she didn’t know that Hajime has a magic eye that’s capable of seeing the flow of magic power. Because the position of the core that could be used to defeat the golem was confirmed, Yue and Shia’s eyes became sharp with a glint.
Currently, there were around ten golem knights that still floated. The trio released waves of attacks aimed to hit Miledi’s heart.
Hajime immediately tried to get closer to Miledi Golem by jumping using the floating blocks as footholds. With the current output of the Railgun, it’d be hard to pierce Miledi Golem’s gigantic body and hit the core. That’s why, he decided to shoot at zero distance to destroy the armor, then pull out a grenade.
However, it was not that easy.
When he noticed Miledi Golem’s eyes shine for a moment, blocks were floating from her overhead toward Hajime with tremendous speed.
“!?”
“I never said I can only control the knights~”
Ignoring Miledi’s grinning voice, Hajime immediately ‘gashun,’ operated his artificial arm’s gimmick.
DOGANh!!
With a sound that could affect the insides of your stomach, an explosive sound rang out and pressure was generated from the back of the artificial arm that was aimed forward. More specifically, it was the discharge of the powerful shotgun. Although acceleration using electromagnetism couldn’t be done, the compression ratio of combustion powder was much higher than in Donner. The recoil was also severe because of it. The trajectory of Hajime’s body changed mid-air, while the blocks that came flying were dodged. Afterward, he somehow managed to put his feet on the targeted block.
Naturally, Miledi Golem tried to “drop” Hajime’s foothold, but before she was aware, Shia already approached her from behind and she jumped to deliver a strong hit on Miledi Golem’s head. First of all, she wanted to destroy the eyes’ part on the head that gave off suspicious light.
Miledi Golem who noticed Shia was approaching, made the golem knights target Shia that was in the middle of her jump. Shia was completely defenseless mid-air. At the moment that she was almost cut by the large swords.
“… … I won’t let you.”
This time, it was Yue that had moved before she was aware of it, using “Rupture” she cut the golem knights that tried to attack Shia.
“As expected of Yue-san!”
While saying that, with the trouble gone, Shia continued to advance in the air, and she delivered the attack that was made by strengthening her physical ability to the limit.
“Golem won’t lose in terms of power~”
Miledi Golem proved her own words, while turning around she immediately swung her burning right hand toward Shia.
DOoGAGAGAN!!
A tremendous roar resounded when Shia’s Doryukken and Miledi Golem’s heat knuckle collided. The surrounding floating blocks were blown away radially by the ensuing shockwave.
“Damn you!”
Shia who was unable to penetrate Miledi Golem’s fist let out a shout to pull out more of her power. However, just as expected of a golem’s physical strength, Shia was shaken off and blown away by the fist.
“Kyaaa!!”
Shia let out a scream. There was no floating block in the direction she was in. Because she thought Shia would fall at this rate, Yue dashed out from the side and embraced Shia. Using “Soar” for just a moment, they corrected their trajectory and landed on the floating block in front of them.
“Quite a combination you have there~”
With a composed voice, Miledi Golem looked up while Yue and Shia looked down at her. An unexpected voice came out from nearby.
“Right?”
“!?”
Letting out a panicked and surprised voice, Miledi Golem changed the direction of her glance. Before she was aware of him, he had slipped onto her bosom while fixing his location using the anchor and putting his foot into the cracks on the armor, he aimed the large weapon : Schlagen to the heart’s part. A bright red spark gushed out from Schlagen.
“S-since whe—!?”
DOoGAN!!!
Miledi’s surprised words were cut off by the roar that came from Schlagen. Having fired a mass of killing intent from zero distance, it blew Miledi Golem away and her chest armor was shattered into tiny fragments. Even if “Lightning-clad” couldn’t be used with enough output, the current Schlagen’s firepower was the same as Donner’s maximum power. Even so, that was enough firepower to destroy metallic armor. Even golem knights’ armor could easily be blown apart by the current Donner, so Miledi Golem’s armor that’s made from the same materials even if it was a little thicker, could be destroyed using Schlagen.
Blown backwards, smoke came from Miledi Golem’s chest. Hajime also flew backwards. By shooting the anchor, he turned around mid-air, and with the momentum he landed on a nearby floating block. Then, he observed Miledi Golem’s condition.
Yue and Shia also jumped to the floating block near Hajime.
“… … Did we do it?”
“Although there was a response…”
“With this, I want it to end.”
Having heard Yue’s response, Shia said her wishful thinking. Hajime’s expression was subtle. Although Miledi Golem’s chest armor was destroyed, without knowing what had happened, nearby floating blocks started to move, and Hajime and his party could hear a voice that was filled with admiration.
“Wow~ you’re the real deal, that was a close call. If there was no magic power disintegration, that artifact’s real power would be very dangerous you know~, yes, having made this dungeon with great effort, Miledi-chan is a genius!!”
Miledi Golem praised herself. However, her words didn’t enter Hajime’s ears. Hajime’s expression was sharp. That’s because there was jet black armor beneath the wrecked chest armor, and he noticed one thing from that. Hajime remembered that armor’s material.
“Nnu~, did this interest you~”
Miledi Golem noticed Hajime’s gaze, and with a grinning voice she pointed at the jet black armor. With the tone of someone important, “This is you know~”, she tried to explain the armor’s identity, but Hajime continued that with a mutter followed by a vulgar word.
“… … Azanthium huh, bastard.”
Azanthium ore is an ore boasting the trait as the world’s hardest ore that even Hajime use in some of his equipment. A thin coating of this ore is even able to endure Donner’s maximum power. That’s why Schlagen’s attack was unable to scratch it. Hajime drew wrinkles on his forehead because it would be hard to destroy that Azanthium armor.
“Oh my? You knew of this~, rather that’s a given. You have conquered O-kun’s dungeon after all, so it was impossible for you to not know how to use Creation magic~, now come, because you had understood your limit and feel hopelessness, let’s move on to the second round!”
Miledi snatched the materials from the smashed floating blocks, when the surface armor was reconstructed, she started to fiercely charge while firing the Morningstar.
“W-what should we do!? Hajime-san!”
“There is still a way. By any means, seal off her movement!”
“… … Nn, affirmative”
With the condition where they didn’t have enough firepower, Shia who was shaken asked Hajime. Hajime still had his last resort, to use it he issued an order to seal off Miledi Golem’s movement. On the other hand, Yue and Shia let out somewhat relieved expressions and they tried to evade the incoming Morningstar by jumping to the nearby floating blocks. However,
“I won’t let you~”
Along with Miledi Golem’s voice, the floating blocks that became their footholds started rotating in high speed. With their footholds rotating all of a sudden, Hajime and his party lost their balance. Then, the Morningstar crashed into Hajime and his party with its immense power. Hajime and his party abandoned their footholds that had become fine dust. Hajime was clinging to the chain that passed with ‘jhara jhara’ sounds. Yue used the fragments of the smashed floating blocks along with “Soar”, while Shia was using the recoil from Doryukken’s explosion to somehow manage to make an emergency landing on the floating block before her eyes.
Maybe because that was Miledi Golem’s aim, she thrusted her heat knuckle towards them.
“Kuu!!”
“Nnh!!”
They avoided the direct hit but were affected by the force of it passing by. Groans of anguish were let out from Yue and Shia’s mouth. Even so, as if that were something else, Yue aimed at Miledi Golem’s hand and invoked “Rupture”, while Shia used Doryukken’s gimmick to let out a stake, and with a strike, pierced Miledi Golem’s armor, and clung to it.
“Rupture” was able to cut off part of Miledi Golem’s right hand, but it couldn’t completely sever it, and Yue landed on another floating block with a mortified expression.
On the other hand, Shia who clung to Miledi Golem’s left shoulder made a full swing of Doryukken and aimed at Miledi’s head. However, Miledi Golem’s sudden use of “fall” made Shia lose her balance and she was thrown out in the air.
“Kyaa!”
Shia let out a scream. Over there, Hajime who clung on to the Morningstar’s chain swung himself and using the centrifugal force, he jumped and caught Shia in the air.
“Hajime-san!”
Shia called out Hajime’s name with a voice full of joy. It was the rescue by embracing that she yearned for. Although she was aware of the situation they were in, she immediately felt elated. However, there was Hajime’s quality. Shia was thrown to the crowd of demonic beasts in front of them.
“H-Hajime-san!?”
“Let’s go one more time!”
With a ‘gashun,’ he reloaded a shotshell into his artificial arm and then fired it. Using the recoil, Hajime rotated and threw Shia toward Miledi Golem assisted by the centrifugal force.
“Damn ittt—!”
When she thought her desire had been fulfilled, the next moment she was in a situation where she was suicide attacking the enemy. Letting out a roar of desperation she prepared Doryukken.
Even Miledi felt that Hajime’s actions were cold. However, she was still ready to intercept that, she drew back the heat knuckle behind while clenching its fist. And, in the next moment, suddenly a big explosion came from the chain that connected to the Morningstar.
“Wawawah, what-!?”
Miledi let out a surprised voice. The cause of the explosion was a large amount of grenades that Hajime attached to the chain. With tremendous explosive power, the chain was blown from the middle section, while the left arm that was wrapped by it was greatly damaged. Because of the impact, Miledi Golem’s stance was broken.
Shia reached her while swinging Doryukken.
“Rhaaaaa!!”
Along with that shout, she pulled the trigger on the handle and the shotshell inside burst out. Doryukken approached Miledi Golem using the momentum created by the acceleration from the impact that was even able to crush air.
Miledi Golem was still occupied by the severe damage on her left arm. Immediately, Doryukken hit her left hand. Without mercy, Doryukken pulverized the brittle left arm up to the shoulder.
With the momentum used to swing Doryukken, Shia floated in mid-air. Miledi Golem wanted to at least take revenge for her left arm, and she released her heat knuckle at Shia.
However, during the time Miledi was concentrating on Shia, a laser of water came forth from her lower side, and it precisely cut the part that was previously only partially cut. Afterwards, with the wound opened up and being cut further, Miledi Golem’s right hand was finally cut off.
“… … I did it.”
The one who said that with a smile, was of course Yue.
“Kh, you—! Don’t get carried away!”
Miledi raised a voice filled with irritation. In that moment, Hajime fired the anchor at the floating block overhead and moved in the air like a pendulum, catching Shia who had fallen. However, it was not a hug, but rather, holding her armpit.
“Hajime-sa~n, aren’t you going to give me a hug as a reward? Please read the mood~”
“Don’t say it as if I was a KY. You who tries to fulfill your desire in such a situation is the one that should read the mood”
The moment they landed on the nearby floating block, Shia let out a displeased voice while pouting, then Hajime tsukkomi’d while amazed by that. Miledi who lost both arms somehow didn’t summon the surrounding blocks to reconstruct her arms, she only looked at the ceiling while her eyes shone strongly.
Because of a totally bad premonition, Hajime’s expression stiffened. It was also supported by Shia’s pale expression.
“Hajime-san, Yue-san! Dodge! It’ll rain (… …)!”
Hajime guessed Shia’s special magic had perhaps triggered. That means, somehow a dangerous situation that could kill someone related to, or Shia herself would occur. He confirmed Yue’s location, a little ways behind him, with a cursory glance, then Hajime took a stance to respond to anything that might happen
Immediately, it happened.
The entirety of the room rumbled. The low rumbling of earth resounded, fragments fell from the ceiling. No, they were not fragments. It was the ceiling itself that’s falling.
“Kh!? That bastard!”
“Fufufu, it’s payback. Although I am incapable of controlling multiple things except the knights, if it’s only to make them “fall,” then even I can cause hundreds of them to do so~, show me how you surpass this~”
Although there was irritation in Miledi’s easygoing words, there was no time to notice it. Because the room’s walls were made from numerous blocks, that means the ceiling is also made from numerous blocks. One by one, each of those blocks were gigantic with weight surpassing ten tons. Those things were falling like rain. Cold sweat flowed from Hajime’s forehead.
“Ha-Hajime-san!”
“Let’s join with Yue!”
Shia let out a trembling voice while being carried, and using the anchor with a pendulum-like movement, they jumped toward Yue’s direction. Yue also jumped using the floating blocks as footholds toward them. During that time, Miledi Golem kept looking at the ceiling. Perhaps, just as she said, unlike the golem knights she was only able to control one or two things. Therefore, in order to make them fall, she must concentrate to remove hundreds of those gigantic stones from the ceiling.
Somehow, when Hajime and his party rejoined, hundreds of gigantic stones simultaneously poured down from the sky.
GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOh!!! GOBAh!!
Blocks were coming from the ceiling, groups of gigantic stones were falling, letting out devastating roars while the room’s tremor was stopped. Moreover, she might even be able to adjust the trajectories because they were specifically aimed at the place where Hajime and his party were. Even Miledi Golem wouldn’t commit a double suicide, so it’d be safe to go under her and after he took a glance at that, he dashed out with a tremendous speed along the wall. But, even if he started now, they wouldn’t make it.
“Yue! Shia! Hold on tight! Absolutely don’t let go!”
“Nnh!”
“Yess!”
As soon as Hajime heard Yue and Shia, he once again took out Orkan from “Treasure Box.” Then, he rapidly fired 12 rockets at the oncoming gigantic stones. While leaving trails of sparks, they flew towards the death that was coming overhead, and one by one the rockets that came flying at the gigantic stones caused large explosions.
Their vision was shrouded, the groups of gigantic stones couldn’t be seen, and they let out a little smile because of Orkan’s attacks. Finally they were able to see some of the ceiling. Hajime put Orkan away then set up Donner-Schlag and fired them at the ceiling. He tried to spread the little path of safety they were in, so he continued to precisely break the fragments from the gigantic stones.
However, Hajime’s interception could only go so far. Finally, groups of gigantic stones that fell with great velocity reached Hajime and his party. Hajime confirmed that Yue and Shia were tightly holding onto him, then moved using his special magic. It was “Light Speed.” Hajime’s world immediately lost its color, he was able to recognize the falling fragments of death one by one.
He passed by the barrage of gigantic stone fragments using the minimum necessary movement. At the same time, he spun the guns in his hands and reloaded them, he used concentrated shots at the unavoidable fragments, changing their trajectories. He couldn’t waste even a comma. Just like the fight with the Guardian of Orcus Great Dungeon, where even with the level of perception expansion from “Light Speed” that he just awoke to, it still wasn’t enough. It was necessary to exceed the limit of concentration!
Hajime further used another special magic. It was “Limit Break.” Hajime’s body was immediately wrapped in red light. But, that immediately disappeared. If it was normal, Hajime’s physical abilities should have raised by three times, but that special magic was nullified by the dungeon’s magic power disintegration. “Limit Break” itself was similar to wearing a reinforced exoskeleton made by magic. It was different for physical ability strengthening which was applied internally. In other words, even with the cancellation of body strengthening, his strengthened and expanded perception effectiveness was not canceled.
Also, to “break” the “limit” wasn’t something gained for free. The load on his body wasn’t something normal. Furthermore, Hajime already strengthened his perception to the limit using “Light Speed.” His body would already have been broken if not for the demonic beasts’ meat that he ate. Actually, because he was still unable to endure it, the capillaries in Hajime’s eyeballs showed, while he let out a little nosebleed.
Yue and Shia were swaying unsteadily when he moved, while clinging to Hajime who was evading the death that rained with only small movements. He balanced himself on the footholds that swayed and were violently crushed, sometimes he made the falling fragments as his foothold. He sharpened his mind, and now he was able to perceive the cracks on the falling rocks one by one. Having passed the limit, he used the area that normally could not be used by humans to find a way to escape death!
Miledi who observed Hajime and his party from the wall’s side, saw that they were immediately swallowed by the groups of gigantic stones. Although they struggled, they weren’t able to surpass those large masses as expected, then she deactivated “fall” with a little disappointment.
With their fall stopped, the clusters of gigantic stones were floating along with the blocks, then the scattered ceiling’s wreckage rose.
“U~n, as expected, it was impossible~, but if they couldn’t do this much, they wouldn’t be able to win against those shitty bastards~”
Miledi muttered that while searching for the corpses of Hajime and his party. And, at that time,
“I have no interest in those shitty bastards.”
“Eh?”
She heard a familiar voice. The insolent boy that moved at his own pace, gray haired with an eyepatch and used artifacts she’s never seen before. That’s right, it was Hajime’s voice. Miledi turned her head to the back while letting out a shocked voice tinged with a little joy.
There was, surely, Hajime who stood safe and sound on the floating block with rough breathing, and blood flowing from his eye and nose while glaring at Miledi.
“H-how…”
Because she saw Hajime swallowed by the group of gigantic stones in front of her eyes, Miledi could only unintentionally let out a doubting voice in front of him. Having seen that, Hajime’s mouth formed a smile.
“Although it’s okay to answer that… … is it okay to only focus on me?”
“Eh?”
Miledi raised the same doubting voice as before. But, that doubt was immediately answered by hits of magic.
“”Rupture””
Yue’s dignified chant resounded, then lasers of water rushed out from behind Miledi Golem and hit her back, feet, head, and shoulders. The water cutter tore apart the surface armor of each part.
“No matter how many times you do it, it wont be any different~, I’ll just defeat you after reconstructing my arms.”
“Well, we won’t let you have the time for that.”
To the Miledi Golem that still calmly turned around after receiving Yue’s magic, Hajime used the anchor to approach her in a flash. In his other hand was Schlagen.
“Ahaha, this again? Well, it’s impossible to break my Azanthium armor~”
Miledi was still composed. She thought Hajime who clung to her was trying to shoot the chest part having aimed Schlagen there. She didn’t even try to obstruct him using the floating blocks in the surroundings. Well, that was only natural. After all, Hajime’s weapon was proven to be unable to stand against Miledi Golem’s armor. Therefore, because it already reached this stage, he still chose that kind of attack. Miledi determined that he was just putting up useless resistance without any more plans behind it.
However, her composure proved to be fatal.
“I already know that!”
Sparks came from Schlagen along with Hajime’s words, he fired the full-metal jacket-like thing that was accelerated by electromagnetism towards Miledi Golem’s chest at zero distance. A great roar and impact were generated while Miledi Golem was blown backward.
However, Hajime didn’t withdraw like last time. He kept clinging using the anchor, his artificial arm pushed into the Miledi Golem’s chest that was broken, once it was inside he fired the shotshells until they were exhausted. The tremendous impact blew Miledi Golem even further, and she was thrown into the floating block behind her.
“E-even after this, eventually…”
“Yue!”
Ignoring Miledi’s words, Hajime called out Yue’s name. Following that, Yue jumped and released her magic.
“Be frozen! “Ice Coffin”!”
Just as she wished, she pulled the trigger to activate the magic that’s originally used to confine objects inside a coffin of ice. However, this ice magic was a high-ranked water magic. Middle-ranked and above magic should be unusable in this area. Even so, this magic was necessary to restrain Miledi Golem.
The ceiling blocks that she threw along with the back of Miledi Golem were frozen immediately, then the floating block was at a stand still.
“Wh-!? How did high-ranked magic—!?”
Miledi raised a shocked voice. It was a simple story on how Yue was able to use high-ranked ice magic. Just like “Rupture,” by preparing the water beforehand she was able to reduce the consumption of magic power. That’s why beforehand, water was scattered on the blocks that Miledi was thrown to. Also, water was also scattered on the back of the composed Miledi Golem. That was the objective of the previous “Rupture.”
Even so, it still consumed enormous magic power, Yue used up all of the magic power that she stocked inside the magic crystallization stone. Yue evacuated on the nearby floating block while panting.
“You did it, Yue!”
Standing on Miledi Golem’s chest, Hajime took out his last resort from “Treasure Box.” What appeared from the void was a large elongated cylinder with a length of two and a half meters. A lot of mechanisms were installed outside, while inside a jet black stake with a diameter of 20 centimeters was loaded. On the lower side, four sturdy arms were installed, and it began to synchronize with the mechanisms inside Hajime’s artificial arm.
Just like that, Hajime inserted the arms right above the unmoving Miledi Golem, and fired the anchors that were installed on it’s outer casing. Six arms deeply pierced the surface and firmly fixed the large cylinder in place. At the same time, Hajime poured his magic power into it. Then, the large cylinder let out red sparks, the jet black stake that was loaded inside began to strongly rotate.
KIiIIIII!!!
The melody coming from the high-speed rotation echoed. Hajime was grinning, if not for having a golem’s body, Miledi’s expression would surely seem cramped. This atrocious form was the artificial arm’s attachable weapon called “Pile Bunker.” Using “Compression Transmutation,” four tons were compressed into a stake with a diameter of 20 centimeters and length of 1.2 meters, and its surface was coated with Azanthium ore. It was the heaviest and hardest stake in this world. It was shot out using a large amount of combustion powder that was compressed and electromagnetic acceleration that was set on the upper part of the large cylinder.
“Take it with all your might and die.”
Accompanied by those words, as if driving a stake into a vampire, the jet black stake struck Miledi Golem’s core.
GOoGAGAGAN!!!
The pile bunker activated accompanied with a terrific impacting sound, the jet black stake pierced through Miledi Golem’s absolute defense. The Azanthium armor on the chest was immediately cracked, and the stake buried itself into it without mercy. Because of the impact, Miledi Golem’s body sank and created a radial crack on the floating block. The floating block immediately descended. From Miledi Golem, white smoke was rising from the chest part because of the friction from high-speed rotation.
… … however, the light didn’t disappear from Miledi Golem’s eyes.
“Ha, hah. Apparently its power is still insufficient. But, well isn’t it the real deal? I wonder, did it pierce 3/4 of the armor?”
Somewhat, her voice was stiff, but Miledi still kept her composure. She secretly drenched in cold sweat. Although the pile bunker was a certain kill weapon, because of insufficient electromagnetic acceleration, its real power couldn’t be shown. Therefore, it was disappointingly unable to fully penetrate the defense.
However, Hajime’s eyes didn’t show any resignation. It was as if he already took it into account.
“Do it! Shia!”
Hajime put everything away into “Treasure Box” except the stake, then he quickly jumped away from Miledi Golem’s chest.
What appeared instead of him was Shia with rabbit ears blown by the wind and Doryukken in an upper stance, while she fell from far above.
“Kh!?”
Miledi had probably guessed what Shia tried to do. This time, Miledi Golem tried to hurriedly get away. When she realized, with Shia’s current speed, even if she moved the floating block now, she wouldn’t make it in time… … she gave up and stopped moving.
Shia, using the force from the shotshell, brought down a blow with all of her might into the stake.
DOGOoOO!!!
The stake sank further accompanied with a great roar. However, it was still unable to fully penetrate the armor. Shia decided to attack using all of the remaining shotshells, then she pulled the trigger.
DOGONh! DOGONh! DOGONh! DOGONh! DOGONh! DOGONh!
“AaAAAAA!!”
Shia’s shout rang out. She decided to show all of her will and pour it into the Sledgehammer that was her partner. With all of her might and will, she let out all of her power. Together with the attack, the floating block was greatly pushed downwards by the impact.
Finally, with a roar the floating block crashed onto the ground. The jet black stake penetrated the absolute defense of Azanthium with the last attack, and reached Miledi Golem’s core. Although it was just the tip, but ‘bishih,’ the core was cracked along with that sound.
When it crashed into the ground, Shia used Doryukken as the starting point, and with one hand, she somersaulted. Then, with all of the body strengthening power directed to her leg, the kick that carried enough centrifugal force was used to drive in the stake.
Having received Shia’s kick, the stake was immediately pushed deeper into the core and expanded the cracks… … until finally it was completely crushed.
The light in Miledi Golem’s eyes disappeared. Having confirmed that, Shia gradually loosened her power, and let out a sigh of relief. Immediately, Shia heard landing sounds behind her. There was Hajime and Yue as expected. Shia turned toward the two with a smile that sums up everything. Hajime and Yue also let out smiles that sums up everything.
One of Seven Great Dungeons; Raisen Great Dungeon’s last trial was certainly over.