Sage Van sat in the audience chamber of the castle. The fourth round had placed him there, so he had decided to stay and wait. It was the final area of Cavern Quest’s final field, a castle in the middle of a floating kingdom. The castle itself was surrounded by a city that was uninhabited. The fields of Cavern Quest hadn’t been designed with that much detail, only put together roughly to make an interesting environment.
It gave a really strong impact for the last quest. The idea of a castle floating in the sky was interesting. Those vague ideas had led Van to create the huge bank of clouds, a stone disc floating inside of them, and then place forests, rivers, and other natural scenery around a castle and its town.
Originally the last quest was supposed to be a fight to the death among seven parties, so there wasn’t supposed to be any boss waiting in the audience chamber here, but for now Van took a seat on the throne. Each season of Cavern Quest had a different last boss, but across all seasons, once could consider Van himself to be the ultimate final boss, so him ending up here felt a little ironic.
“The last boss being the developer of the game is a bit too meta for my liking, though.”
But this was what the Great Sage had ordered, so there was nothing he could do about it. At the very least, he wanted to put on a performance that Mitsuki would enjoy watching.
“Looks like someone’s here.”
Someone had entered the castle. It wouldn’t be hard for him to look up who it was, but he was content to wait. After a short time, a single person stepped into the audience chamber. He was a man with red hair in something resembling a casual kimono.
“Yo. You supposed to be the king?” As the man approached, the two of them shifted into the battle channel.
“Nah, I just showed up here by chance and decided to have a seat while I could. Are you from the same Japan as Yogiri Takatou?”
“Ah, you mean my clothes? I picked these up from a world I visited a few trips ago. I really liked them, so I’ve been wearing this style ever since.”
Maybe the guy was not actually connected to Japan at all. It wasn’t unlikely that some world somewhere would have the same style of clothing.
“Anyway, my name is Kyuuzaburou Suzuki.”
“So are you from Japan or not?” Van sighed.
“Does it matter? There are plenty of worlds that look the same, even if they don’t use the same language.”
Though they could speak freely, in a different world the language barrier between them would become an evident problem. For a Sage, automatic translation was simple enough, so much so that it happened unconsciously. Because of that, Van didn’t really hear the words the man was speaking.
“Okay then, Kyuuzaburou. I’m the administrator of this game. You don’t have any chance of actually beating me, so are you sure you want to fight? Giving up is probably the fastest way out of this for you.”
“Hmm. What does that really mean, though? Just saying ‘I have no chance’ doesn’t tell me anything. Really, it makes me want to give it a shot.”
As expected, such a short explanation wouldn’t convince anyone, so Van decided to continue. He knew that someone who had made it this far wouldn’t give up that quickly.
“Well, let’s see. In simple terms, I can freely manipulate the world around us. I can open up a hole beneath your feet, or remove the oxygen from the air around you, or change gravity to crush you. I can also send you somewhere completely different...though since we’re in a battle channel, I wouldn’t send you outside of it.” While he couldn’t directly affect the players in the game, he could change the environment around them as much as he wished.
“That doesn’t sound any more convincing to me. Anything else?”
“I see. I guess there’s still value in trying if you’re desperate. So how about this, then? As the maker of this game, I’m invincible inside it. No attacks can work on me at all.”
“Ah, I’ve heard of things like that before. But I’ve also heard of Game Masters forgetting to set the invulnerable flag on themselves and dying anyway.”
“Unfortunately, in this case, it’s not a flag to be set. As long as the game world exists, I’m invincible.”
“I guess I can follow that logic. You and the game are basically inseparable.”
“So, do you understand?”
“I think so. Let’s give it a shot.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Van sighed. He had assumed this was how it would go the moment he had laid eyes on his opponent. No matter how much they talked, there was no chance of the other guy surrendering.
“Death match rules are fine for me,” Kyuuzaburou said.
“Sure. Of course, feel free to surrender at any time.”
Sage Van vs. Kyuuzaburou Suzuki: FIGHT!!!
The announcement indicating the start of the fight played in the air between them.
Van didn’t move from his throne, watching to see what Kyuuzaburou would do. He had no intention of trying to set up an instant death trap for him. He wanted to see what Kyuuzaburou would try. Though the stranger seemed rather aloof, he couldn’t have just ignored everything Van had told him. Being the Game Master lent an air of credibility to everything he said, so it would take more than wishful thinking to throw doubt on his claims.