✦ ✦ ✦
“You can tell?” Lloyd asked.
Alka looked smug.
“Just felt around for unknown hostility. But…frankly, it was all too predictable.”
“It was?”
“She’s off taking a gander at Lab Chief Rinko and grabbing the Holy Sword…which is the key to the Last Dungeon.”
“So she’s headed for Azami?”
“Yup,” Alka said, wincing. “Man, no one can get enough of that place…”
With that, she turned to Azami, looking grimmer than ever before.
The very air trembled as they all followed her gaze.
“Time for the final battle.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Meanwhile…
Stripped of her bunny suit—and Asako’s body—President Eva/Eve Profen was now free, possessed of the exact beauty she’d always longed for, and able to wield the demon lord’s power. She was swimming merrily across the sky toward Azami.
“Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!”
She was in a very good mood—gallivanting cheerily, bobbing up and down, wheeling round, going through clouds. It was like she had just acquired the airship in an RPG.
She skimmed the ground, taking childish delight in startling the animals, and stuck a hand in the water to make ripples, admiring her reflection.
“The ideal face, the ideal body, youth, power, et cetera, et cetera! There’s nothing better than this.” Eve kicked the water, making a rainbow in the spray. “But I’m a greedy creature. I have all this—yet I’m far from satisfied.”
With a hint of self-mockery, she flittered through the air, eyes locked on target.
On the kingdom of Azami, where Rinko was—and where the key lay, the Holy Sword itself.
“I’ll steal that sword, get a glimpse at the look on Rinko’s face, and then go back to my world, where I’ll make it all mine!”
Cackling with delight, she stopped horsing around and made a beeline for Azami.
✦ ✦ ✦
Meanwhile, inside the Azami castle…
“I can sense it… Something went wrong.”
Rinko had stayed behind to protect the Holy Sword, and her instincts were sounding the alarm. She was staring up at the sky, uncharacteristically serious.
She was shaken to her very core, and she couldn’t stand still— She was about to go check on the sword when the royal guard, Chrome, came running in.
“Q-Queen Rinko!”
“What’s up, Chrome? Something happen with the sword?”
“No reports like that— Why do you look so spooked?”
“No reason,” she said, unable to explain the chill running down her spine. “What’s the news?”
“Right, reporting!” Chrome said, straightening up. “Dr. Eug just woke up!”
“Huh?! Eugy’s awake?!”
Eug had worn herself out in an earlier fight and spent the time since in a coma. If she was awake—that might be a sign.
Rinko hurried to the basement, but on the way, she found Eug staggering toward her. Both looked equally surprised.
“Eugy?!”
Eug didn’t try to run. If anything, she looked relieved, as if Rinko was the very person she’d been searching for. She leaned against the wall, slumping to the floor and breathing heavily.
“You okay there, Eugy?” Rinko asked.
Eug flashed her canines, forcing a smile. “Lab Chief…been a century since we spoke, huh? Or longer?”
“Lots to catch up on, but this is hardly the time.”
“You noticed?” Eug chuckled. “I thought you might.”
“You know why it feels so ominous?”
“Yeah, it’s gotta be Eve. President Eva.”
“President Eva?”
“She’ll have taken possession of her new body. A good one, fully featured—and extremely dangerous. It’s so bad, it woke me up.”
“Mind if I run my theory past you?” Rinko asked. “Alka and I have worked out a few things. President Eva was on the brink of death. She must have been brought over here in someone else’s body—as irregular as that sounds.”
“Someone else’s body?!”
Rinko nodded. “That explains why she didn’t get any demon lord powers. She’s in someone else! Tony—Surtr was in Allan’s ax awhile but couldn’t work with his full strength, which backs up the theory.”
That made sense to Eug, too, but one phrase Rinko had used jumped out at her.
“Wait, ‘brought over’? What’s that mean, Lab Chief Rinko? Isn’t this Earth?!”
Rinko quickly explained that they were in another world entirely—which came as a shock, but it soon made sense to Eug.
“Oh…so the OOPArts we found weren’t left over from Earth, but were bits and pieces summoned here? By-products of advanced magic?”
Mena had once used a similar spell, Tidal Wave, and brought over a ton of seawater from Earth. Alka’s favorite meteor rune had also grabbed a chunk of rock from Earth somewhere. Any scientist would see how it added up.
Eug seemed even more impressed by Eve’s decisions.
“That’s why she wore that costume: to hide her face. And why she kept going on about how we messed up Earth and made me feel guilty. She was a skilled fortune teller—knew how to work anyone.”
“She was a first-class mentalist. She got you good, but don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“I blame her, not myself. Knowing she made a fool of me for a century is more enraging than depressing.”
Despite her language, Eug looked pretty despondent. Eve’s betrayal had clearly hit her hard.
“Yes, but no use wallowing,” Rinko said, trying to encourage her. “If Eve’s got the demon lord powers she was meant to have, they’re gonna be bad. Any clues what they might be?”
“I dunno what her own power is.” Eug sighed. “But I know what comes with the new body she was making, ’cause I designed it.”
“What’s it got?”
“……Everything.”
“What do you mean, ‘everything’?”
“I mean everything.” Eug started confessing her sins. “Every demon lord power I extracted. Abaddon, the treants, Satan, Surtr, all of them.”
“She’s got all of that?!” Chrome cried. He’d been listening in silence, but this was too much for him.
Meanwhile, Rinko was just nodding. This explained the chill she’d felt.
“No wonder she’s reeking of evil. It ain’t just her own demon lord qualities! Those altered humans aside, the only other person like that is Micona…which shows how scary it can be.”
“Mm… That girl is indeed unusual.”
Two first-class scientists had officially decreed Micona a last-boss power—Micona was allowed to shed a tear or two.
“Can’t Kunlun take care of the demon lords?” Chrome asked. “This is their specialty! Send the whole village after her! They’re out there every day dispatching whatever pops out of the Last Dungeon. If they pitch in…”
But Eug’s face was falling fast. “Maaaaybe they can beat her all together, but if Eve’s mastered my nastiest trick…”
Before she could finish, Rinko shuddered. “She’s here.”
“Q-Queen Rinko, you don’t mean—?”
Chrome looked up, full of alarm.
Rinko shot him her classic smile. “Oh, don’t you stress it. Chrome, you just get Lou—the king—to the inner chambers.”
“Th-that’s all?!”
“She’s after me and the sword. Once he’s safe, alert all soldiers to the state of emergency.”
“Th-that bad, huh?”
Eug slapped him on the ass. “Go lead the dang army, old man! We got our own fight.”
“R-right… I can trust you?”
Eug popped her sucker in her mouth, rattling it around. “I mean, that would sound weird coming from me.” She cracked the candy under one of her sharp canines. “But I got a century’s worth of frustration looking for an outlet—ow!”
Rinko had bopped her on the head. “Down, girl. You can’t beat her with frustration! And you just got outta the sick bay. You need rest!”
“But…”
“Vritra…Director Ishikura would say the same. After all, if you violate labor standards, it’s a mountain of paperwork.”
With what she’d done to him, that sure shut Eug up.
“Do ya read me?” Rinko asked.
“Loud and clear.”
“But I would like you to hunker down with Lou and look after him. Although he’s my man; no seducing him.”
“Oh, please. Fine, take me there—urgh.”
She swayed on her feet, hardly her old self.
“You okay?”
“I’d like to say yes, but I’d be lying. I feel like I’ve been up all night.”
She fought off her urge to sleep, issuing one last warning.
“Rinko… Eve’s body is my masterpiece. Not only can she use every demon lord power I researched…she might well have finished my countermeasures against Kunlun villagers. You may be our only hope.”
Rinko answered with a grin, “Well, that sure sounds like a last boss to me! Gotta get good.”
“God, it’s useless talking to gamers…”
With that, Eug ran out of steam and fell asleep.
Chrome was still concerned as he carried her on his back.
“If we take Dr. Eug at her word, this foe will be a serious threat.”
“I’ll bet.” Rinko looked rather pleased, which left Chrome a little stunned.
“Hah…”
“Eve’s crafty mind and multiple demon lord powers, a perfect foil for Kunlunism—” Rinko started cackling, and it was an honest laugh. “But I’m not alone. I’ve got people to protect, people to back me up. You get me?”
“I do.” Chrome nodded.
He knew why she was grinning, and he grinned himself.
“Welp, she’s almost here. I’d better go.”
“In that case, we’ve got no time… Ngh…”
Chrome frowned…and a new figure appeared.
“—I’ve heard it all! Give the word, and I’ll buy you time.”
“Y-you’re—!”
Who could this be? Who was capable of buying time against a foe this mighty?
“I’ll bet my life for my beloved Marie!”
……I don’t need to spell it out, do I?