‹Oh, crap! It’s Ymir! He really did find us!› I yanked Allo and Treant into my jaws and leapt forward with Roll to zip between the trees away from the direction the sound came from.
Maybe Treant succeeding at things really was bad luck…
Part 2
THE THREE OF US LAY DOWN in Ngai Forest to take a well-earned rest. With Allo and Treant’s levels raised, we were finally ready to take on the Origin Matter.
Maybe I was being a little hasty, but all three of us were reaching a point where we’d need a lot of experience points to level up. It would take much longer now to get stronger. And if we didn’t get our levels up quickly, there were plenty of powerful monsters here that could kill Allo or Treant if we ran into them unexpectedly. This wasn’t a situation where we could avoid taking risks entirely, I knew that. But the bottom line was that the time it would take to fight weaker enemies just wasn’t worth the reward. Instead, we needed to take on the Origin Matter. With Allo and Treant leveled up, there was no better chance than right now.
The Origin Matter had a lot of scary skills that could kill us instantly. When I’d looked at its status screen before, I recognized a lot of the skills on it as ones I’d seen firsthand before. I knew their range and method of attack, and I shared this information with Allo and Treant so we could formulate a strategy.
But even though time was of the essence, we couldn’t take on an enemy like the Origin Matter while we were spent from the battles we just fought. I needed to make sure all three of us were fully recovered before we went looking for another dangerous fight.
Between my Psychic Sense and Treant and Allo’s perceptiveness, I felt relatively sure we’d notice if any monsters approached, even if we were sleeping. But as former Sacred Skill holders and their followers, the monsters here had plenty of tricks up their sleeves. One of us would need to stay awake and on guard.
The sky here never changed color, meaning there was no way to gauge time, so I told the others to wake me up when they were ready to swap shifts to check their HP and MP, and otherwise took turns keeping watch with them. As an Oneiros, I could recover without sleeping, so we didn’t really need to set a watch rotation. But right now, time was of the essence. I had no clue how long we had until Mad God overtook us; we all needed to rest as efficiently as possible.
Allo hadn’t been able to sleep before, but it seemed like she could now that she was a Walpurgis. Maybe she really was different from an undead now after all…
“It’s okay, I don’t really need to sleep anyway. I can take the whole watch…” Allo offered.
I shook my head. ‹I’m not about to burden you with that. You’re probably exhausted from all these battles, and we haven’t had a chance to sleep since we got here, so rest up while you can. I’d rather take the first watch anyway.›
“But…”
‹And both you and Treant will have to take an active role in this fight against the Origin Matter. Even if everything goes perfectly to plan, there’s no guarantee we’ll beat it. It’s a Legendary rank monster at max level. We’re going to run into some complications that we just can’t prepare for ahead of time. If we’re not all completely on our game, we might not all make it out of the fight alive. So get some rest, Allo. Not just for you, but for all of us… So we can take that Origin Matter down and get back to our world. Together.›
‹That’s right, Miss Allo!› Treant chimed in. ‹If you slip up because you didn’t get enough sleep, we’ll all be in trouble!›
“…All right.” Allo nodded in assent.
‹Hm? Master? What’s the matter? You look worried,› Treant asked.
I quickly tried to fix my expression, but now both Allo and Treant were looking at me uneasily.
Urgh… If I kept my mouth shut, they’d just get anxious… ‹O-oh, it’s nothing, really. It’s just, when you say things like that, Treant, it sounds like foreshadowing for the future.›
‹M-Master! Do you think I’m some kind of bad omen?!›
‹N-no, of course not… Sorry, Treant. It just crossed my mind. Anyway, you guys should get a good night’s sleep.›
‹Well, regardless, I will take your warning to heart, Master.›
We decided our watch order would be me first, then Allo, and then Treant. When Allo and Treant swapped, I’d get up to check their recovery as well.
My watch ended without incident, and I woke Allo for her turn and then fell asleep. Allo woke me again as she roused Treant for its watch. I checked their stats, then settled back in for another snooze.
When I woke up again, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. I’d slept a lot more deeply than I thought I would. The mental exhaustion must’ve caught up to me. Setting up watch shifts had been the right decision.
First, I checked Allo’s status as she slept, leaning against my face. I was glad to see her HP and MP were at max again. Next, I checked on Treant, who was sprawled out on the ground in its tree spirit state. It, too, seemed fully recovered.
All right. That meant it was time for us to head for the Origin Matter.
‹…Wait. Hold on a second. Why were all three of us asleep?!›
The last person on watch was…Treant! What the heck?! You’re supposed to be on guard duty, Treant!
Suddenly, Treant woke up and looked at me sleepily. ‹Good morning, Master! My, I feel ready to take on the Origin Matter now! Let’s go! I’m ready to fight with all my World Treant might!› Treant stood tall and put its wings on its hips in a dramatic pose. Then it paused. ‹Wait…that’s strange. Why was I sleeping just now?›
Treant must’ve taken my encouragement to get a good night’s sleep a little too much to heart… I put a paw to my forehead. Well, at least we weren’t attacked…
‹O-o-oh! Forgive me, Master! Don’t you worry! I…I will make up for this blunder in the battle to come!›
“Treant…” Allo, roused from sleep by the commotion, rubbed her eyes before hitting Treant with a cold glare. Treant bowed its head in shame.
H-hey, I mean, I slept a lot harder than I thought I would too. Treant must’ve been exhausted. At least it’s fully rested now, right?
Part 3
I COOKED UP some of the kesaran pasaran meat I’d stowed away with Dimension, and Allo, Treant and I sat for a quick meal. Then we prepared to take to the skies.
Ngai Forest was a world of eternal night, illuminated only by the eerie blue light of the moon that rarely made it through all of the giant tree branches to touch the ground below.
‹Tch. This forest sure is spooky,› I muttered to myself, then stretched my neck out and narrowed my eyes to peer into the sky.
It was somewhere around here that we ran into the kesaran pasarans…and the Origin Matter too. I figured it should show up again if we flew up there.
‹All right… Let’s do this.› I put Allo and Treant on my back, checking over their stats one last time.
The Apophis we’d fought earlier was clearly a much weaker opponent than the one we were about to face. Until now, I’d managed to raise Allo and Treant’s levels considerably while still being confident that they wouldn’t come to any serious harm. Hecatoncheires, while formidable, wouldn’t pursue me too far away from the tower, so I was never in any danger of being killed in my encounter with him.
But the Origin Matter was different. On top of its considerable HP and MP, it had the highest magic power of any monster I’d ever faced, as well as a wide range of powerful skills at its disposal: Dark Ray, which it could fire in rapid succession; Dimension Slash, which could attack instantly without warning; and Big Bang, a skill that was near impossible to avoid. I couldn’t defeat the Origin Matter alone—I needed Allo and Treant’s help, which meant their lives were at stake. Even if the Origin Matter acted according to all of our predictions, even if we gave the fight everything we had, it was possible that wouldn’t be enough to emerge victorious.
This would likely be the most dangerous battle we’d faced in Ngai Forest so far. If we managed to defeat the Origin Matter, though—and especially if we found a former Sacred Skill holder stuck inside its Time Vortex who hadn’t yet succumbed to Mad God—then we should be strong enough to defeat Hecatoncheires.
It was do or die.
I shot straight into the sky, soaring far above the black, crooked frames of the Ngai Forest trees. After a few moments of tense silence, the only sound the beat of my wings as I kept us airborne, a massive black sphere appeared in the distance.
It was headed straight for us.
The black sphere’s diameter rivaled my full length, from nose tip to tail. Fine, glowing lines swirled over its surface like ever-flowing ripples of water.
The Origin Matter.