A while later, the murk around Chrome was so thick, he was like a big black ball.
“Y-you okay in there?” Maple asked.
“I can’t see much of anything.”
“So this run’s way easier.”
Since Martyr’s Devotion was active, blindness didn’t matter.
It was quite unlike their trial runs, in which Kasumi had been forced to solo everything.
“These trees all look the same; I’ve got no idea which way we’re going.”
“Yeah, if we’d had Kanade with us before, we might have worked it out faster.”
What looked the same to everyone else looked distinct to his eyes—he’d have made short work of this.
“But this way’s more fun for me.”
“Fair enough! Not much further.”
The black ball around Chrome began stretching out ahead. It became a thin membrane—then snapped, spreading outward in the air.
The center of the murk began to fade. Behind it stood more gloomy forest, yet it was clearly in a different location from where they currently stood. The murk had formed a gate to another region.
In the distance, they could see a castle, and there was a giant, ominous red moon overhead.
“It’ll close in a few minutes, so get on through!”
“Roger that!”
“This is spooky…”
“Hang in there, Mai!”
“A castle… Let’s hope they’ve got some books.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there are unique items we can only find here.”
“Enemies within are entirely unknown. Keep your eyes peeled.”
“All right, I’m pumped!”
Stepping into unknown areas, ready for anything, was always a thrill.
Hoping for new skills, items, or equipment, all eight players stepped through the gate to this portal dimension.
✦ ✦ ✦
The moment they were all in, monsters attacked.
Humanoid figures all tanked up in murk-laced armor, carrying swords and shields, poured out of the darkness around, attempting to block the way forward.
““Hyahhh!””
Emphasis on attempting. One hit from Mai and Yui’s swirling hammers, and all that armor was useless. Shields snapped, armor caved in, and they burst into light.
“Yup, still working.”
“There are lots of them, but still a one-hit kill, so we’re good to go.”
The full Maple Tree crew conquered things in stages.
First—their main offense, the twins. The rest were buffing or backing them up.
The strategy was simple, and powerful. It was always their opening move. A test to see if monsters could withstand it.
Were the enemies one-shot or not? That was all that mattered.
“Heading for the castle, yeah?”
“Mm-hmm. Looks like we should be able to get there without a struggle.”
“That’s thanks to our all-attack builds!”
“And their very literal approach to landing more hits.”
Their ability to remotely operate the hammers via Helping Hands perfectly compensated for their weaknesses in close-quarters combat.
“Normal monsters…”
“…are ours!”
Flattening all foes, they made steady progress toward the castle.
Still, this approach didn’t work on every monster in the game. The hammers were circling a party of eight—that left gaps between them and plenty of openings from above.
Players could easily take advantage of that. Monsters weren’t that smart, but some did make it through.
“Double Slash!”
“Necro, Burst Flame!”
“Blood Blade!”
But that only got them through Maple Tree’s first stage.
Beyond the hammers of death lay a party that could only be harmed if the monsters had piercing attacks.
Anything that got through was hit by focused fire, everyone covering each other. Could anything get past that?
No, not at all.
It was too tall an order. Flying monsters could not be blamed for their failure.
It was a massacre. A slaughter. A merciless rampage that took them all the way to the castle entrance.
“Wow, it’s huge!”
“If they went ham on the interior, this’ll take a while. Watch out for traps.”
“Got it!”
The road to the castle was just the appetizer. Of course they’d made short work of that.
“This is the real challenge! Not that it changes our approach.”
“True. I have plenty of items, so let’s keep you buffed.”
“If anything weird shows up, me, Kasumi, and Sally’ll step in. You two handle anything dumb enough to get hit.”
“Exactly. We’ll also take on anything speedy or ranged.”
Swapping offense based on what they could handle—each player’s fighting style had its strengths and weaknesses. Basing strategies on those was everything.
Covering those downsides was the whole point of party play.
A big, elaborately decorated door stood before them. Maple stepped up and then glanced back at her friends.
“Ready? I’m opening it up!”
Once everyone nodded, Maple put her hand on the door. Red light shot across the surface—and it began to move with a low grumble.
Well aware that something must be lurking in the castle depths, Maple Tree stepped in.
The moment the door was out of the way, Maple scanned the interior. There was a door on either side and one at the back, flanked by two curved staircases providing an elegant ascent to the second floor. That second floor also had one door dead ahead and a door on either side.
They’d have to choose one of these six options.
“Wow, that’s big.”
“The exterior told no lie.”
“The castle was towering over us from the portal, so we’ve got a long road ahead of us.”
“Where do we start?”
“Mai, Yui, Maple, thoughts?”
Martyr’s Devotion and the floating hammers were what kept their progress steady.
Best to let those players pick a door. They had no way of telling which was the correct path—so no one objected.
“The doors at the back always lead to bosses.”
“So do we start with the sides?”
“If we wanna cover every nook and cranny, yeah.”
“I do!”
Here they’d found a hidden area—they didn’t want to miss a thing.
So they started with the first-floor exit on the right.