“Philia-chan, you can attack,” I said. With that level, it was better for me to support and limit Drigvesha’s moves, while Philia got the experience. I also wanted Pomera to get in a few hits, if she could handle it.
“Okey dokey!” Philia swung her arm up and rainbow light sparkled through the air, then a dragon that looked just like Drigvesha appeared.
“What the…? Is that supposed to be me? What is the meaning of this?!”
“First Dragon Boom!”
Philia swung her arm down.
Her copy of Drigvesha rushed toward the real thing. The two of them collided, causing an earthquake to ripple through the surroundings.
“Groaaah!”
Drigvesha let out a frenzied roar and pushed back against Philia’s copy. They seemed nearly perfectly equal in power.
“Impossible… It is as powerful as me! What is happening? Is this a dream? An illusion?”
“Pomera-san, you attack too,” I said. “You could use a few extra levels. I’ll protect you in case anything happens.”
“I sort of…feel bad for the dragon,” she murmured.
“Y-yeah… But it’s an evil dragon. It tried to wipe out humanity several times. And if we spend too long in here, the situation out in Locklore might change. Let’s get this over with.”
Ten minutes later:
Drigvesha, completely drained of both magic and health, lay in a burnt heap in front of us.
“That was perfect for leveling, since it was higher-level than the demons in the Cursed Mirror of the Warped Realm,” I said, sheathing my sword. “And there was just the one. And it didn’t have any annoying spells.”
“There were a few times I thought I was going to die…but it was better than leveling in the Mirror,” panted an exhausted Pomera.
By defeating Drigvesha, Pomera’s level increased to 1,824 and Philia’s to 3,356. They were going up pretty steadily now.
With that, we successfully defeated the final pawn and the First Dragon. In the Old Realm of the Gods, we’d finished off our to-do list.
“Impossible… I…rule this world… To be…treated like this…”
I stood before Drigvesha. “…You were strong. You’d probably make it into the top five most powerful opponents I’ve ever fought. There’s only one reason you lost.”
“Reason…I lost…? What was that…?”
“You’ve been sealed in here for so long that you couldn’t keep up with level creep.”
Drigvesha slumped to the ground in disappointment and drew its last breath.
Then the area around us shook, and a huge crack opened in space.
“Kanata, the Old Realm of the Gods is crumbling!” cried Pomera.
It was time to get out of there.
-3-
NEAR THE ENTRANCE to Cocytus, which was surrounded by thick walls as a countermeasure against monsters, was now a gigantic white cylinder of a building. It was over 300 feet in diameter, so tall that it reached the clouds.
“Wow! It’s huuuge!” Philia cried with childish joy.
“…The scenery here changes every time I stop by,” I said.
There was only one person I knew capable of such a feat. This was obviously the work of Veranta—Ruler of the World, leader of the Unseen Hand of the Gods—and wielder of the gift skill, Omnipotent Alchemy.
He was currently directing the Unseen Hand and its subsidiary organizations, while also protecting one of the world’s pawns, Cocytus, which was why he made his base here…or so I was told. I didn’t expect he’d build a building like this.
As I looked up at the gigantic tower, the gold gates opened in front of us, and out walked the masked man himself.
“Kanata, Pomera, Philia. Did you destroy the pawn in the Old Realm of the Gods?” he asked.
“Yeah, we finished quickly. It…it wasn’t as tough as we expected,” I said.
“B-but Drigvesha the First Dragon was among the top ten highest-level beings in this world! Well…I’m glad you are unharmed. If you fell in that battle, I would end up torn limb from limb by the lich girl, because I was the one who convinced her to let you go. And I cannot die until our fight against the higher beings is over,” he said with a shrug.
When we were planning to go to the Old Realm of the Gods, Lunaère insisted she should go too, but Veranta had lots of things he needed her help with. He had to explain three times over that those things would help more in the long run. She eventually agreed. Barely.
My master could be a little bit of a worrywart. I thought it was cute of her.
“So…what’s with the building?” I asked, and Veranta nodded slightly.
“A fortress against the higher beings. I prepared it after you left. Inside is where I store and manage the items I make using Omnipotent Alchemy, and also where we raise the levels of the fighting force we’ve gathered from across the world.”
Okay. That meant it was the Unseen Hand’s new base.
“We are serious about taking this fight to the higher beings,” said Veranta. “We’ve already used the influence of the Sopia Trading Company to spread word throughout Locklore of the situation with the higher beings and of their evil deeds. And…we also confessed to being their agents in controlling Locklore for hundreds of years.”
I gulped. They were working so fast. They really managed to do all that?
“I know you said before that we needed to do that, but are you sure we didn’t jump the gun…?” I asked.
If we just told everyone in Locklore the situation about the higher beings, the people of the world might not be able to accept living in what was basically a livestream of a game. Locklore was entertainment with the assumption that no one knew of the higher beings’ involvement.
Now there was no way to avoid a clash between Locklore and the higher beings. The people of this world weren’t going to be okay with the fact that they were the gods’ playthings, and with the gods causing disasters in the world whenever they wanted.
And the higher beings couldn’t just leave things as they were. They couldn’t pretend they didn’t see the fuss and try to hide it. They would probably get even more annoyed and start interfering in even bigger ways to try and force a resolution. Either that, or they’d try to wipe out the world of Locklore. The nuclear option wasn’t entirely out of the question.
“That move does shorten Locklore’s life span, after all,” I added.
“Hmph, surprising you would say so,” said Veranta. “When the Unseen Hand lost to you and your friends, Locklore had no choice but to stand against the higher beings. Then we collected the world’s pawns and defeated Reniement and Lucifer. I thought you’d realized long ago that resolving this fight was the only hope to save the world.”
I did understand that, but I couldn’t help feeling shaken that all our routes of retreat had been cut off.
But I was the one who decided to thrust the truth on Locklore for my own peace, and the peace of the people I cared about. And I didn’t regret it. Which meant that I couldn’t run from accepting it now.
I calmed my breathing and looked back at Veranta. “…I’m sorry. I wasn’t taking this seriously enough. Wanting there to be wiggle room for us to find some way where Locklore doesn’t have to stand against the higher beings is just wishful thinking.”
“Good. I have also steeled my resolve. This tower is an expression of that. Look. It is based on the Tower of Babel, the tower of Earth legend built to reach the realm of God,” said Veranta as he turned and gazed up at the gigantic tower.