“Sora! Sora! Can we kill these damn birds, please?!” “It’s getting difficult to dodge them on such uneven ground, it is!!” Sora instantly answered his fellow heroes with the calculated risk-based decision expected of an IGL—all while ignoring Steph’s question! “Nope!! They’re too embarrassed to fly straight—we’ll use our speed to outrun ’em! They shouldn’t be a threat as long as they focus on Steph’s shield, so let’s keep searching the floor!! The eye candy should keep my MP pool healthy!! Steph might even lose her armor again!! Emir-Eins, I want you to record everything within sight and send it to my smartphone later!! Can you do that for me?!” “Report: Recording already in progress. Capturing images with maximum zoom, picture quality, and frame rate.” “…Brother…I wonder if…I can knock just the…arms they’re using, to cover their chests…with my Hollow-Point Shot…?” “Your genius never ceases to amaze me, Shiro!! Do it!!” “Hello, harpies?! I will join you if you sue these two in a court of law!!” As they navigated a stage where one wrong step could lead to a fiery death… Sora and Shiro never stopped enjoying themselves, for the most part. Until… They made it to the fifty-ninth floor with ease, where they stood before the boss door, which sat at the end of a very long hall. However, two powerful-looking suits of armor were standing on either side of the door, guarding it. And although they saw the party members, the Living Armor didn’t charge the party aimlessly. The party had been stuck in this spot, thinking about their next move, for almost twenty minutes… “So…what are we going to do? Those two enemies look powerful.” “Affirmative: As per this unit’s Analyze skill, each monster is ninety-one percent as strong as the Minotaur boss from the tenth floor.” “Then perhaps we should forgo fighting the boss today? Seeing as a certain someone wasted their MP playing around? What have you been contemplating for twenty minutes anyway…?” Steph shot Sora and Shiro a doubtful look upon hearing Emir-Eins’s analysis. It was unclear how powerful this upcoming boss would be, but the party had only about 60 percent of their MP at this point. It was difficult to imagine they would have the strength necessary to fight the next boss after clearing out these two enemies, each of whom was as strong as the first boss. Which left the party with two choices: Beat the two sets of Living Armor today and go home, or— “…Just so you know, I will not help you recover MP this time, either.” Steph refused to assist the siblings who’d just been dicking around with naked harpies and nagas. Which really left the party with only one choice—but Sora and Shiro ignored Steph and kept their eyes on the enemy— “That’s fine… We’re just waiting for those two to leave.” “Come again…?” Evidently, there was a third option, which the party was already taking, unbeknownst to Steph. “Did you forget how great this country’s work environment is?” Some monsters that the party didn’t defeat—and sometimes didn’t even engage with—disappeared and reappeared. Sora looked to his sister, and they both nodded. “…Almost there… In ten…nine…eight…” “Awesome. Get ready to go, guys. Ready, aaand—RUN!!” The two began running straight for the two sets of Living Armor, and the other three members scrambled to follow. So we are going to fight?! Steph held up her shield and prepared for battle—but. “…Two…one…zeeero… ” As soon as Shiro had finished her countdown, the two mobs suddenly vanished. Huh? “All right! Time for the boss, guys! Get ready to fight!!” “Wait, what?! What just happened?!” Steph spoke for the rest of the party by sharing her confusion. “That should be obvious! They’re changing shifts!!” Sora answered her while he sprinted down the hallway past the spot where the Living Armor was— “It’s what we heard before we started! This game is being run on four shifts to keep it running twenty-four seven!! This is a shift change!!” Passing by the spot where the Living Armor left exactly on time for their work schedule, the party arrived at the boss room doors. They watched as the magic seal disappeared from the door, and— “There are a few seconds of lag when the staff changes—we can skip the boss this way, too!!” Two new sets of Living Armor respawned, but didn’t start moving yet… “Wait, so—the reason the bosses we defeated don’t respawn is…” Til was finally up to speed on the boss situation, and Sora nodded with a grin. Just as Schira Ha had said before, when the staff’s HP reached zero, they were sent to a facility outside the Tower where they rehabilitated their work-related injuries and were given some time off. Whenever the Demonia staff were about to run out of HP, they were teleported out of the dungeon…which meant! “The staff that need treatment are given month-long breaks for their mental health. And there’s no replacements for the unique monsters such as the bosses! This place really does have the best benefits. ” All the bosses the party had defeated thus far… The half-cow, half-man Minotaur; the giant plant creature Triffid; the boulder-slinging Rock Golem…and the rest of the monsters… The party imagined them all being on vacation, taking the time they needed to recover— “Wow… What an incredible place to work…!” Steph was moved by the realization she’d finally made as the party leaped through the door, and when they saw the two-headed Cerberus woman who awaited them in the sixtieth-floor boss room— “Got another babe in my sights!! Preparing my Projectile Shot!! …Crap!! Looks like bosses can’t be stripped in one hit!! Then you’re just gonna hafta eat a lot more of these!! I’ve got this, guys!!” “…Til…Izzy…! Give, us cover until we…can strip the boss…” “You want us to save our MP until she has less defense, you do!! Got it!!” “Correction: Course of action also maximizes time of boss nudity and video length captured by this unit.” “Oh, that’s the plan?! You sure are a hopeless little brother, you are! Roger that!!” The party—Steph’s coworkers—engaged in fierce sexual harassment against one of the Devil’s beautiful henchwomen, and Steph thought: I’d rather work for the Devil’s Army… She watched as the poor Cerberus woman’s clothes were ripped away. A tear ran down her cheek as she held up her shield… The party defeated the Cerberus woman without trouble. They returned home with Evac and got a nice night’s worth of sleep, bringing them to the next morning. The light of the morning sun shone in on the preparation room—and just like every morning they spent there, the party ate the food that Schira Ha and the skeleton brought into the kitchen for Steph to busily prepare. With Til’s expertise no longer needed, she was allowed to drink some ale while tending to her hammer. Shiro worked on her stretches and Sora, his exercise regimen. After two weeks, the party had grown accustomed to their daily routine. And the furball—or Devil—said once more… “…C’mon, guys. Why do you keep coming back here…?” He had the same question for the party every time he saw them, and they always gave him the same answer. “Really? We’ve been over this: Is the head of state seriously going to neglect his own nation’s laws? You guys are the ones with an eight-hour workday and four-day workweek here. You do know that eight hours is the max and not the minimum, right? I’ll report you to the Department of Labor if I have to.” “And what party of heroes goes through the Department of Labor to fight the Devil?! And you fools are only working every third day!! That’s not even four days a week!! Me and my staff have been waiting for you for fourteen days straight, I’ll have you know!!” Even the rattling skeleton who was nodding to the Devil’s statement appeared to be very tired— “…We’re just…gonna…chill.” “You guys should take some more time off. We’re not going anywhere while we rest.” The siblings responded with a distinct lack of interest in the question in the first place. “That’s not the issue here!! I don’t know what happened in there, but I do know your party has a method of healing MP inside the bag, right?! You could use that to progress much faster than this!! And I’ve grown tired of even pointing it out, but you really must do something about this blasted pooch!! You’re gonna make me cry!!” “I’m not lettin’ you go today, please. You smell damn nice, please. You’re sleeping with me tonight, please.” This was Izuna’s routine—gnawing and nipping at the Devil whenever he came to complain about them. Tears were welling up in the Devil’s eyes. The entire party looked to Steph. It remained a mystery to everyone—save for Sora and Shiro—what exactly Steph had done inside the bag to heal MP. They looked to Steph with pleading eyes, hoping against hope for an answer: Are you ever going to tell us? “…I will never tell you what I did, and I’m never going to do it again.” “There you go. She’s not gonna let us do it that way, so we need to get some R and R.” Steph flat out rejected the group’s interrogation, leaving them pouting in disappointment. And then: “R-right. Very well, then. It doesn’t matter in the long run, for I am immortal and almighty, and your efforts are futile!!” The furball menaced the party like he always did, but the party had figured it out a long time ago: This furball’s just bored and wants something to do… “I suppose if you heroes are given the time, you will eventually reach me. Then so be it: Time I shall give you!!” The Devil, oblivious to his own boredom, flashed a big smile. “It doesn’t matter how many years I must wait—use the single life you are allotted to try and defeat the Devil, O Heroes! Gah-ha-ha-ha— Hey, pooch. I’m trying to make an exit!!” “Hell no…please…! We’re sleeping in the same damn bed tonight, please!! Mnghhh!!” Izuna fought to keep her toy, who vanished with a poof whenever the skeleton and Schira Ha eventually left. The preparation room soon filled with Izuna’s wails. Then Steph gave herself a little pep talk: “He is right! With enough time, we should be able to win this game!” The Demonias the party faced were growing stronger and stronger. It was getting to the point where if they weren’t careful, some of the regular mobs could pose a threat. For Sora and Shiro, it would take only a single mistake for the game to come crashing to an end—this much hadn’t changed. But what did change… Sora and Shiro, who were untouchable by the thirtieth floor, had each gained another skill. Til unlocked three, Izuna two, and Steph one more skill. Any equipment they found along the way remained largely untouched. The party always had Emir-Eins’s burst damage and—most important—Jibril’s ability to shift the party back to the first floor, which she could do during a fight… It was the party’s backup plan, should a boss battle take a wrong turn. They could run the dungeon as much as they needed, healing HP and MP when they needed… “It’s true… At this point, nothing about this game can make us lose,” said Steph. “We just need to get to the hundredth floor and fight the Devil to win this, we do!!” The rest of the party seemed to agree with Steph’s optimistic take, with the exception of one person. It was Sora, who was heading to the shower along with his sister—he remained silent, not even nodding. He was thinking about questions that had been on his mind the entire time… These were questions commonly held by people who played RPGs where the objective was to defeat a nebulous Devil character… For example: Why does the Devil want to destroy the world? Or: Why do the player characters recover HP and MP by sleeping in an inn? Why are there treasure chests in dungeons? Et cetera, et cetera… Why do the enemies’ bodies disappear? Why don’t the bosses respawn…? All questions Sora had gained over a lifetime of gaming… And this world had reasonable answers for most of them. But…if that was the case. Then, just as the Devil had said so plainly only a moment before, with a wicked smile; something he said with hope and desire—and another emotion—in his eyes. A standard line, and something that always had Sora confused when the enemy said it in games— It was his biggest question—and if like the others, it had a simple answer… “Then…this might not be so easy…,” Sora whispered to himself with a grim expression…… In the Republic of Elkia—in the parliament president’s office sat Chlammy, who was diligently coping with her nausea to get through another stack of documents…when suddenly: She came across a lone sheet of paper—which stated that it had been two weeks since the Commonwealth challenged the Devil. She then turned to her friend sitting next to her, Fiel, and asked a question out of the blue… “…Fi. Why do you think the Devil waged war against Elkia alone this time?” Whenever the Devil revived, he challenged the entire world to war. During the Great War, after the Covenants were established—and when he revived four hundred and fifteen years ago, this was how it always happened. But why was it different this time…? Chlammy asked Fiel this, but— “The Intelligence Department believes Schira Ha the Wise convinced the Devil to do so. They claim that Demonia is on the same side as the Front… Though that doesn’t make much sense to meee…” Fiel had the same question, to which she received only lackluster answers. Even more confusing was that Schira Ha had resigned from the Devil’s Army Joint Chiefs of Staff… Many questions about the game that was being played and the situation behind it went unanswered, leaving Fiel in deep thought. But once more, out of nowhere. A new question arose in Chlammy’s mind. …It was hard to tell whether this came from her own thoughts, or if they were part of Sora’s memories, but she asked it anyway. “…Fi… What is the Devil?” “…Hm? It is a Phantasma that is trying to destroy the world, yesss?” Fiel looked confused by Chlammy’s question. She had told Chlammy this over and over. It was written in every document they had on the subject matter… But Chlammy was never satisfied with it. And although she wasn’t satisfied, she didn’t quite know how to express what exactly she took issue with, so she usually kept her doubts to herself. This time, however, she tried to work out with Fiel what had her so confused… “It’s not that… I’m asking why the Devil exists.” Fiel looked even more confused, and Chlammy tried to pick her words more carefully. “First…there’s something so unnatural about the Devil’s game, isn’t there?” The Devil gave you everything of his if you won his game. He had the power to create and steal life—he had his own race, and their own Race Piece. He waged all of this against nothing more than the despair of those who challenged him. Not only that, but— “There isn’t a single agent plenipoitentiary who would ever bet their Race Piece in a game like this.” When Immanity split into two factions, and the republic came into existence, Sora and Shiro were no longer the Immanity agent plenipotentiary—they were just the Kingdom of Elkia. Jibril, Emir-Eins, Nýi Tilvilg, Izuna Hatsuse, and Stephanie Dola—all of them were… “What does the Devil have to gain from winning this game? Why would he wager his own life and creations, the Demonia race—against anyone who was willing to accept his challenge…?” “Ah, are you referring to the conspiracy behind this game?” This was something that Fiel thought when she first learned the rules. She now understood where Chlammy was coming from. Red light shone in on the office from the setting sun as Fiel gave her friend a thin grin. Fiel knew there was something more to the game, but— “No, that’s not what I’m talking about. I think it is something more fundamental…” “…?” No, not that. Chlammy shook her head at Fiel. She thought even more about how to convey this strange feeling she had about the game… “The Devil did the same during the Great War: Challenged any hero willing to face him—though it wasn’t framed as a game back then. He was supposed to be a nightmare that would bring the world to its end, and yet he went out of his way to have heroes fight him? It’s almost as if—” , …As if… Chlammy stopped herself there. She figured out where this strange feeling came from. It was clear to her that her doubt stemmed from Sora’s memories… In Sora’s memories were countless questions posed toward an imaginary Devil… A being who tried to destroy the world, and always had a convenient way for heroes to defeat him. He had so many questions—and criticisms—about the idea of an ultimate evil. But his biggest question was: “…Why does the Devil act as if he wants someone to defeat him?” “Because…” The Devil said he wanted to destroy the world, and yet always left a path for others to prevent him from doing that—he contradicted his very own existence. It was as if he was a mere plot device. Something that needed to be there. To give the illusion of a good story—and if this was the case. “Who shared the same fantasy of a Devil that brings about world destruction…?” “……………………” Though Fiel didn’t have an answer to this question, Sora’s memories led Chlammy to a certain explanation… In Sora’s world, the concept of a Devil—of a big, bad enemy—existed only in fiction. It was an obstacle for players to overcome—nothing more, nothing less. But in Disboard…the Devil actually existed. He was real, but only as a convenient plot device for heroes to overcome—an ultimate evil. If the Devil…a Phantasma…was born from the world’s imagination…and if the theory floating around in Sora’s memories was correct… “Then this is just…too cruel…” So cruel that the nauseating documents that piled up on her desk seemed almost innocent. It was a wickedly hideous theory—one Chlammy prayed was incorrect. This much she hoped with disgust as she looked off into the distance, toward Garad Golm… It was day nineteen of the heroes’ party’s time in the Tower dungeon. On their seventh trip up the Tower, they ventured into the seventy-first floor, which—like each ten-floor set prior—took on new terrain. This stage was something out of a certain toxic valley that stole life in the most brutal fashion. The party waded through the disgusting mire… …until they reached the boss on the eightieth floor—a very high-ranking Demonia. The party barely managed to defeat the beautiful arachne—barely… “Damn… I know we can go back and recover, but you never get used to this despair…” The party needed to make liberal use of their stronger skills to stand a chance against more powerful enemies— Doing so required a lot of MP; everyone had around 20 percent left after the boss fight. Sora was mentally and physically exhausted—but Steph responded to his remark with visible skepticism… “You sure looked happy earlier when you stripped the poor arachne woman naked, and you never even gave her the chance to cover her exposed breasts with any of her eight hands… You deserve what you get.” “Negative: No inefficiencies in Master’s operation. Every action taken was a well-calculated, strategic decision.” “Also, Little Dora? Post-battle clarity is a healthy part of Immanity male physiology. ” Steph still had her doubts about her inventory-bound companions’ evaluations, but she agreed, for the most part, with Sora. This time, Shiro, Til, and even Steph had used the lion’s share of their MP pools, leaving them visibly exhausted. While it was true that they could go home and recoup—it didn’t change the fact that they felt this depressed whenever they approached utter despair. And they knew it would happen again, too. Though their mental fatigue was plain as day— “B-but! We only have the ninetieth-floor boss left! Twenty more floors and one more boss until floor one hundred—the Devil! And then we clear the game!! We’re almost finished. ” Despite her low HP and MP, Steph shook her head and forced a smile as she hit the party with some positivity—however. “We’ll see about that…” “………Oh?” Crap… I’m letting my lack of MP get the best of me… Sora had accidentally shot Steph down. The party looked at him. They wanted to know the meaning behind what he’d said, and he got frustrated with himself for his slip of the tongue. He then turned to the open door and asked: “You guys wanna do just one more floor this time…?” “Huh? But look at everyone, and look at you! There’s no way we can stomach any more today.” “Yeah, I know. We’ll shift outta here as soon as we get a look. Jibril and Emir-Eins, I want you two out of the bag on standby.” Sora spoke with no enthusiasm as he began to lug himself up the stairs. Jibril and Emir-Eins warped out of the bag, and together, the six confused party members followed Sora. Even if we leave now, we’ll find out what’s up here in a few days after a break. So why not get a peek and take the time to process it while we recover? Sora wanted to forget about the words he’d just let slip. He turned around and looked at his party members. Every ten floors, the terrain changed drastically… Their adventure started in a holy castle befitting a holy king. Next was a forest paradise. This was followed by a limestone cavern that oozed with nature’s mystique. After that was a glimmering cove with deep blue water and a desert dotted with treasure-like oases… Each stage was defined by its stunning beauty. But this all changed from the fifty-first floor on. First was a volcano that had them staring death in the face, and then ruins that were tucked into thick fog and darkness. And finally, a gloomy, toxic, swampy valley with miasma floating through the air… Which meant it was about time for— “…I think…the Devil’s true nature is gonna manifest in the last two stages…,” Sora muttered to himself as he dragged his legs through the door. And just as he suspected… He and the rest of the party had the same reaction to what awaited them on the eighty-first floor. “Wh-what is this…place…?” The group was at a loss for words, struggling to contain a scream. This—was the answer that Sora had predicted. If there was an answer as to why the Devil was an all-too-convenient trope—then it would be this. Sora finally knew his suspicions were correct, and he proceeded to show a troubled, strained grin before thinking… FML…I guess I was right……
Chapter 192
20 min read