As curious as I was, my questions for Kayla would have to wait. Right then, we needed to focus one hundred percent on defeating the Demon Lord.
“Okay, so now that we know we can use Dimensional Step, we need to get within one kilometer. Arisu, how close did your Shape Lightning get us just now?”
“Um… I think we were about twenty kilometers from the Demon Lord, maybe less.”
“So, we need to cover another nineteen kilometers… surrounded by Flying Jellyfish.”
However, it was only about ten minutes until sunset. There was no time to dawdle.
“It’s rough, but let’s go with this plan.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Coeurl would be staying behind. He wasn’t entirely trustworthy, and there were doubts about his combat effectiveness.
“Bye-bye, Wan-chan!” Kayla called, waving her hand energetically at him.
Although he arranged his face into a mask of slight annoyance, Coeurl’s tail and ears drooped sadly. I think he felt left out.
Next, everyone else grabbed onto Arisu. Tamaki and Rushia held onto her legs, I wrapped my arms around her neck from the back, and Kayla hugged her from the front.
It was an awkward arrangement, but it was better than being flung off in midair.
“Here we go… Shape Lightning.”
With the four of us in tow, Arisu turned into lightning and launched forward.
For just a moment, our acceleration was blindingly fast. We covered the kilometers in a flash, then came to a sudden stop.
In front of us, a massive black wall filled our field of vision. Wait, not a wall, I corrected myself; it was the Demon Lord, spherical in shape, but so large that it looked like a wall at this distance.
There was something else that surrounded us in every direction: Flying Jellyfish.
Hundreds, or maybe even thousands of them had already spotted us, and they lost no time in extending their tentacles toward us and launching missiles.
Facing such a saturation attack…
“Mama Arisu! Top left! Over there!” Kayla pointed to a corner where the density of missiles was thinner.
“Shape Lightning,” Arisu spoke without hesitation, again turning into lightning, then bringing us to a sudden stop.
When we opened our eyes, a massive explosion was unfurling exactly where we had been moments before, down and to our right.
Phew, we managed to avoid the first wave.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t expect that luck to continue indefinitely. As the blast wave approached, Arisu deployed a barrier with her Spear Shield Technique to block it.
“All right, Kazu-san?”
“Yep. Be careful… Kayla, let’s go.”
Kayla and I separated from Arisu, taking each other’s hands.
The smoke from the explosion cloaked our figures.
“Be careful, Kazu-san. Shape Lightning.” Taking Tamaki and Rushia with her, Arisu left to go serve as a distraction.
“Greater Invisibility,” Kayla cast to hide us both within the smoke.
According to Sha-Lau, the monsters that saw through our invisibility before had methods of detection other than sight, like thermal detection or sound waves like sonar.
In this vast space, I don’t think sonar detection is likely. That leaves…
“Cold Inferno.”
Rushia’s voice echoed from far away. In the direction Kayla and I were heading, the air exploded in a tempest of ice and flame.
The power of the fire-water synthesis magic at ten times the normal consumption was overwhelming. The nearby jellyfish were severely thrown off balance, with some even falling from the sky.
For a precious moment, the enemy ranks were thrown into chaos.
“Let’s go, Papa!”
Kayla and I took advantage of the blast wave to leap forward. Still holding my hand, Kayla initiated Dimensional Step, closing the distance to the Demon Lord in an instant.
The surrounding Flying Jellyfish seemed unaware of our presence; they were too busy dealing with the powerful magic unleashed by Rushia and the others as they retreated.
This might just work. Kayla and I exchanged nods of agreement, but then—
“Ah!” Kayla exclaimed.
“Accel,” I cast reflexively. By accelerating my consciousness to observe our surroundings, I saw that a Flying Jellyfish below us had just launched a missile in our direction.
Kayla had just used Dimensional Step and was still surrounded by smoke. She wouldn’t be able to move us in time. There was nothing else I could do to evade the incoming missile, so…
“Deflection.”
The thin, rainbow-hued membrane was deployed at the last second. Fortunately, this was an impact missile rather than a location-specific one—which meant that it bounced back the opposite direction, falling toward the Flying Jellyfish.
“Dimensional Step.”
Without waiting to see the result of the collision, Kayla moved us to the next location.
✦ ✦ ✦
We were detected straight away by several Flying Jellyfish.
As they aimed their missiles at us and fired, our presence was revealed to the rest, leading to a concentrated attack. But again and again, Kayla accurately identified points where the enemy’s attacks were thinnest, using Dimensional Step in quick succession to evade.
In less than a minute, the Demon Lord hovered directly in front of us. Maybe just two short jumps away?
At this critical moment, right as we jumped out, a violent shockwave hit us. I screamed as I held onto Kayla, both of us spinning wildly through the hot air.
It seemed an enemy’s leftover missile had exploded nearby, like the even-numbered shots in the many shooting games I’d played.
“Kayla, anywhere, just jump!”
“Yes, Papa! Dimensional Step!”
Just before we warped, I saw a swarm of missiles heading our way.
This time it was the odd-numbered shots. Had our decision been even slightly delayed, we would have been caught in their explosion.
At the next spot we jumped to, there was a Flying Jellyfish waiting for us. Its tentacles surged toward us.
“Force Field,” I called, deploying an invisible shield to block the tentacles. While the enemy was momentarily disoriented, Kayla found our next warp point.
As missiles again flew at us from all directions…
“Dimensional Step.”
We escaped by a hair’s breadth, landing right in front of the massive black sphere.
Though “in front” still meant a few hundred meters away…
“Papa, behind you!”
I turned to see a Flying Jellyfish stretching its tentacles toward us.
But then, another loud voice could be heard. “You won’t get in our way!”
It was Tamaki.
The Flying Jellyfish was struck from the opposite side, causing its semi-translucent form to stagger.
Wait, I thought these guys were immune to physical attacks? So how was it… Ah, it must have been that black sword beam, imbued with Dragon Slayer Slash.
Tamaki had bought us a few precious seconds. I still couldn’t see her or anyone else through the smoke, but I silently thanked them before turning to Kayla.
“Let’s go.”
“Okay. Dimensional Step.”
The final leap.
✦ ✦ ✦
We arrived atop a pitch-black floor.
No, this very ground beneath our feet was the Demon Lord’s body. Looking up, I saw an uncountable number of Flying Jellyfish encircling us, directing their tentacles our way.
“What should we do, Kayla?”
“Below the floor!”
Quickly crouching down, Kayla touched the floor. Swiftly, a cut traced through it—transforming rapidly into a circular hole.
Normally, one would fall through such an opening, but Kayla and I were under the effect of Wind Walk… or so I thought, until our bodies dropped sharply.
Oh no, we’re being sucked in!
“Kayla!”
In a panic, I reached out for my daughter. Our hands found each other as we fell together.
Missiles rained down from above, but before they could reach the Demon Lord’s body, the hole closed up tightly, plunging us into blackness.