Doc really has turned you into something that isn’t human, I thought, recalling how fast Els had been able to run while trying to escape the Beast Chain, in addition to this metamorphosis from the brother I knew. But this was no time to break down crying. I had to think of a way to restrain my brother, and fast.
“It doesn’t look like the Beast Chain is going to quieten him down,” I said to Aoyuki. “You hold on to him while I go knock him out!”
“Mrow!” Aoyuki replied. Even if Els was now a superhuman monster, my Level 9999 Genius Monster Tamer would be more than strong enough to hold him in one place with her chain. My plan was to have Aoyuki use her skills to restrict Els’s movements enough to give me the opportunity to render him unconscious with one blow. I raised my Gungnir and dashed toward my brother, but Doc had other ideas.
“I would rather you refrained from doing that,” he said, still dodging and slicing through Mei’s Magistrings. “Boost!”
Doc then used some kind of buff, but he didn’t direct it at Els. No, he boosted me and Aoyuki!
“Whoa! Yikes!” I felt my stats go through the roof, which would normally have been a nice rush for me if it weren’t for the fact that I was just about to bash my brother’s head in. I managed to stop my swing in the nick of time—because the last thing I wanted to do was kill my brother—and instead ran straight past him and put a safe amount of distance between us. It took about that long to kill my momentum anyway. Aoyuki also yowled in surprise as she desperately tried to adjust to her newfound strength that threw her completely off-balance, while still attempting to keep my brother in place with her chain.
Once I’d acclimatized to the buff, I attempted to run at my brother again.
“This time, we shall try a debuff,” Doc declared.
“Huh? I can barely move!” I cried out.
“Nrreew?” Aoyuki mewled.
Only a few seconds before, I had felt so light on my feet, it was like I had wings, but my legs instantly felt heavier than solid lead. In fact, the debuff was so sudden, I almost stumbled and fell flat on my face, though I managed to save myself at the last second. Aoyuki wasn’t so lucky, however. She wasn’t able to recalibrate her arm strength in time in order to counteract the debuff, giving my brother the opportunity to yank on the chain and swing the Genius Monster Tamer skyward. Els let out a roar and jerked the chain to slam my lieutenant into the ground. But Aoyuki wasn’t an SUR Level 9999 warrior for nothing.
“Nrrrow!” Just like a real cat, Aoyuki twisted her body in midair and touched down on all fours in a way that cushioned her landing, leaving her entirely unscathed.
“How dare you obstruct Master Light!” Mei yelled at Doc, directing her murderous rage at him.
“Now, now, there is no need to get so agitated,” Doc said, as if he were a physician tut-tutting the behavior of an unruly patient. “Please understand that I am duty bound to interfere, since I cannot afford to see my most brilliant work destroyed.”
I recalled what Miki had told us about Doc the last time we’d interrogated her. “He’s also a buff and debuff specialist, so you shouldn’t underestimate him,” she had said. “You never know what he’s got up his sleeve.”
We certainly hadn’t come into this fight underestimating Doc, but I had to admit, he was proving to be more of a virtuoso in countering our attacks than we had anticipated. I supposed this was his way of compensating for his low offensive capabilities.
If we’d just been dealing with my brother, we could’ve used a teleportation card to take him down to the Abyss, I thought. But thanks to the anti-teleportation pillars we set up, we can’t do that. The pillars had been placed around us to ensure Doc couldn’t escape, so any kind of magical translocation was completely off the table.
In which case, maybe I should team up with Mei to take down Doc, I mused. And once that’s done, we can easily take care of my brother afterward.
I gave Mei and Aoyuki a look, and both nodded their assent. We had gamed out multiple scenarios for this mission beforehand, so they both knew how to adapt to any sudden change of plan I deemed necessary. Mei was the first to make a move by blocking Doc’s exit route with her Magistrings.
“Well, I say! This is grossly unfair, boxing me in like this!” Doc protested.
“UR Dimensional Severance!” I yelled, activating the gacha card in my hand. This attack worked by slicing into an adversary by opening up and closing the surrounding dimensional space. That meant the card was able to do serious damage to its target regardless of how high their defensive stats were. I aimed for Doc’s legs so that he wouldn’t be able to run again, but as soon as I’d released the card, he desperately executed his countermoves.
“Debuff! Debuff! Debuff!” the Master shouted frantically. “Multilayer debuff!”
Doc’s debuffs obviously targeted my Dimensional Severance rather than me, because by the time the magic I had unleashed reached his legs, it was too weak to affect them.
“You’re able to debuff and weaken attack magic?” I breathed in awe. I had to admit, even I was impressed with that. Miki had told us that Doc was an expert in providing rearguard support, but I never would’ve guessed that he’d have the power to directly interfere with magic spells.
Just to be clear, I could have killed Doc any time I wanted. Simply hitting him with an unsealed Gungnir would have done it, for instance. But since I needed to capture Doc alive so that we could turn Els back to normal, I was left with no choice but to put up with countering his bag of tricks. His powers certainly aren’t making this easy, I thought bitterly. And naturally, Doc picked the perfect time to needle me even more.
“I sense from your words and your homicidal aura that you are exceedingly cross with me,” Doc surmised. “But what have I done, pray tell, to make you so upset?”
I paused for a moment to collect myself. “Are you serious?”
“Indeed I am,” Doc replied. “If I have hurt your feelings in any way, then please allow me to offer you my sincerest apologies. I am also willing to offer you a gift as restitution, if that is what you prefer.”
Doc was somehow utterly oblivious to what he had done wrong, and his sociopathic detachment was starting to drive me up the wall. Then again, nobody could really have held me responsible for losing my cool.
“What have you done?” I said, repeating his words back to him before exploding. “Go to hell! You turned my brother—a member of my family—into a monster! And that’s even before mentioning the countless number of human beings you killed after using them as guinea pigs! And you’re seriously wondering why I’m upset?!”
“Hmm? But I believe I’ve already informed you that your brother has made a crucial sacrifice for the sake of the human race,” Doc pointed out. “And just like your brother, the sacrifices of those who came before him will eventually lead to a new future for humanity. You should be celebrating this wonderful prospect instead of cursing it. Indeed, I suggest you cheer up and be proud of your brother for his marvelous contribution—”
“Sacrifice for what?!” I screamed. “Do you think human lives are worth nothing?! We aren’t your toys to play with! If you think your vision of the future of humanity is so damn important, why don’t you ‘sacrifice’ yourself for it?!”
Realizing he wasn’t going to get anywhere by feeding me more of his screwball justifications, Doc sighed under his mask. “Well, goodness. It appears you are far too young to understand the nobleness and majesty of my ambitions.”
His mild disappointment suddenly morphed into something more menacing. “Very well! I will just have to overcome your total lack of reason by force. I should not be so surprised that a work of such ingenuity would initially be dismissed by the unenlightened.”