The dark mist once again enveloped the fake C, and two eyeballs appeared on his torso. He raised his dark energy lance and stared down Fenrir, silently telling the God Wolf that it was next. The mighty wolf took half a step backward, whining softly at the eerie and abnormal situation it had found itself in.
“You’ve done well. I know his secrets now. You’ve done enough.”
The SUR Level 9999, Genius Monster Tamer, Aoyuki had teleported into the arena with her Beast Chain already out, and a moment later, she had swung her weapon and buried the spiked collar into the abdomen of the fake C, who could only babble at the completely unexpected attack as it sent him flying at the arena wall before he had time to react. The wall was unable to handle the force of the impact, causing an avalanche of debris to bury the fake C as soon as he slumped to the ground. Aoyuki kept an icy eye on the briefly incapacitated Master as she took out a gacha card to cure her frenzied monsters.
“SSSR Advanced Anomaly Cancel—release,” she said in a soft, even tone. This card was able to cure major ailments—poisoning, sleepiness, petrification, or even curses—unless they were too powerful, though fortunately for Cerberus and the Phoenix, that wasn’t the case in this instance.
The middle Cerberus head stopped gnawing at the other two heads and barked in confusion. Wait a minute. What was I just doing? it seemed to say. The Phoenix, still dazed and in a heap on the ground, chirped and got back to its feet as if nothing had happened.
The fake C finally burst free of the pile of rubble, still prattling away incoherently like always. Aoyuki calmly eyed her foe, noting he hadn’t taken any damage at all, although one thing did stand out.
“I suspected as much,” she said. “Those eyeballs have disappeared.”
Ignoring Aoyuki’s observation completely, the fake C formed another mist lance and prepared to charge, but the three (now cured) high-level creatures unleashed magical attacks at him: Fenrir manifested and launched an untold number of giant icicles; Cerberus hurled floating lances with extra unseen penetrative properties; and the Phoenix showered him with flaming feathers. Unfortunately, the three-way offensive only pounded the ground where the fake C had been standing, the Master emerging from the dust cloud still attempting to get to Aoyuki. The SUR warrior had other ideas, however, and had swung her Beast Chain directly at the fake C, passing through the attacks that had been unleashed by her own creatures untouched because she had instructed the monsters beforehand to direct their attacks in such a way that they would miss the chain entirely.
Unlike the previous time, the fake C used his energy lance as a shield, which managed to partially dampen the blow, even if he was propelled backward, carving grooves into the ground with his heels. Aoyuki and her monsters wasted no time taking advantage of this opportunity that had been presented to them.
Fenrir, Cerberus, and the Phoenix concentrated their attacks on the Master, forcing him to remain on the defensive, and as they chipped away at the dark mist armor enshrouding him, Aoyuki calmly observed, analyzing the situation.
“The eyeballs are markers,” Aoyuki declared. “Sharp objects made by the black mist absorb the life force of whatever they pierce, and when they do, that creates an eyeball. The number of eyeballs indicates the number of victims stabbed. The higher the number, the more power it has to cause derangement in others nearby.”
At the beginning of the battle, Aoyuki had observed from afar while her familiars engaged the fake C, and in that time, she was able to deduce that the black mist had properties that could drive opponents mad. She also sensed a strange energy being channeled from Cerberus and the Phoenix to the Master, which had seemingly been used to make the two eyeballs that evidently had the power to drive the Phoenix insane to the extent that it would fly into a wall at full speed.
The demonkin soldiers who had initially attempted to engage the fake C had all gone insane because their low power levels had failed to protect them from the psychological effects of the mist, even when it had zero eyeballs. However, Level 8000-plus monsters were immune to this latent effect, and it was only when the fake C injured Cerberus—and similarly, the Phoenix—that the ailment was conferred to the creature. The Level 9000 Fenrir was the only one of the three monsters sent into battle that maintained relative composure.
“Conversely, if your opponent avoids being stabbed by you and removes the eyeballs by force, then you are no longer a threat,” Aoyuki stated. “As such, if you happen to get lucky and render one of us insane, we can easily cancel the effect. All that’s left now is to physically incapacitate you and capture you.”
The fake C babbled as the attacks from the three monsters continued to rain down, tearing away the black mist section by section, with each hit doing physical damage as well. Realizing that he would lose if he stayed on the defensive, the fake C impetuously charged headlong at Aoyuki, without giving any consideration to the notion that he might need to stop the three creatures first.
“You’re unable to make rational decisions due to your madness,” Aoyuki diagnosed with a kind of clinical detachment. “No matter how high your level might be, defeating you will be simple. You are no different than a goblin in that regard.”
Her attempt at a witty quip fell on deaf ears as the fake C charged at the Genius Monster Tamer in blind fury yet again. Aoyuki stood her ground without losing her cool as the overpowered Level 9999 madman barreled toward her.
“Follow my lead,” she called out to her monsters as she swung her Beast Chain at the fake C’s legs, causing him to stumble and leave himself exposed to follow-up attacks. The three Cerberus heads synchronized their ranged attacks at the fake C, gouging out a crater where he was lying, while the Phoenix followed up with white-hot flames that liquefied the surface into molten rock, which filled the crater. Fenrir finished off the barrage by sending a giant iceberg crashing down on the lake of fire. The fake C found itself trapped in searing hot lava with a huge ice floe above him, preventing his escape and leaving him to fry like a slab of bacon in a lidded skillet. Needless to say, for a lower-level being, this would have spelled the end.
“Okay, that’ll do,” Aoyuki said after deciding the fake C was fricasseed enough. Taking the hint, Fenrir dissipated the iceberg, allowing a billowing cloud of steam and scalding heat to escape upward. The lava inside the crater quickly hardened into igneous rock, trapping C within.
Aoyuki eyed the supposed Master with severe disdain, but she had been instructed by Light not to kill him so that the team in the Abyss could root through and read his memories. She knew she couldn’t let the fake C languish in the crater until death came to him, so she dutifully resolved to place the Beast Chain around his neck to paralyze him, before pulling him out of the hardened lava and hauling him back to her home dungeon alive.
Aoyuki allowed herself a brief moment to imagine herself being praised and scratched under the chin by Light on the successful completion of her mission, then swung her Beast Chain toward the fake C. The collar neatly clasped around the Master’s neck, but before Aoyuki could do anything else, she blanched and immediately detached it.
Fenrir barked. What’s wrong? the God Wolf asked. Cerberus and the Phoenix also cast worried looks in Aoyuki’s direction. Instead of immediately seeking to reassure her loyal creatures, the Genius Monster Tamer had to clasp a hand over her mouth to stop herself from retching.
The moment I placed the collar on this fake C, his loathing started channeling down the chain and into me, Aoyuki reflected. I never imagined I would meet a foe steeped in so much insanity...
The fake C’s madness burned hotter than the lava that had trapped him, yet it was even darker than the murkiest morass in an all-consuming void. Aoyuki’s only choice had been to let go, because the psychosis effect was threatening to overwhelm her with hate, hate, hate, hate, hate...
“Bnahwagw!”
The fake C jabbered and struggled to extricate himself from its igneous prison. Despite suffering untold damage from the combined attacks, he was thrashing around as if his injuries hadn’t registered in his consciousness at all.
The Phoenix screeched an instruction to the other two creatures to stand in front of their handler to shield her from the fake C, but before they could move a muscle, Aoyuki raised a hand to stop them and whipped the Beast Chain toward the unhinged Master once more. The collar clamped around his neck for a second time, and yet again, his madness flowed through the chain and into Aoyuki, but this time, the SUR warrior had steeled her mind against the psychological assault.
“Do you really think your loathing could be more powerful than my fealty to my master?” Aoyuki snarled through gritted teeth. “That isn’t possible.”
Aoyuki was actually ashamed she had let go of the fake C the first time, even though it had been a purely reflexive action. To her mind, that act stood in complete contradiction to her absolute and unbending loyalty to Light.
When she was first summoned by Light from her Unlimited Gacha card, Aoyuki encountered a boy whose physical and mental wounds from that brutal betrayal were still fresh, and because he was the god who had given her life, she wanted to heal those wounds. She wanted to support her creator, and it was a desire that came from the bottom of her heart. At the time, Light saw a little bit of the sister he had left behind in his home village in Aoyuki, and for her part, she was perfectly willing to act like a little sister for Light. Or even as his pet, if that would bring him solace.