“Oh, yikes…”
When I raced to the Upper Stratum, I found it half submerged underwater.
I used a pit that connects from the Lower Stratum to the Upper Stratum to get here, although it was really more of a waterfall, thanks to the water flowing into it from above.
That made for a lovely sight and all, not that now is a good time to be admiring the view.
As for why all this is happening, it would appear that a certain someone decided to bust a hole in the ceiling of the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
This labyrinth happens to be underneath the ocean.
Which means that if you make a hole in the ceiling of the Upper Stratum, seawater will flood right in.
The ceiling is incredibly thick and sturdy for that exact reason, but I guess it’s not so tough that, say, an ancient dragon couldn’t break through.
Honestly! What a ridiculous trick to pull on us!
What sane person would ever think to try and flood the biggest labyrinth in the world?!
Not me, I can tell you that much!
As it happens, flooding labyrinths is actually not that unusual of a concept.
I learned about it in the demon academy.
It’s a very effective strategy against an airtight underground labyrinth with no other exits, or so we were told.
The existence of Water Magic makes flooding a place much easier than it would be on Earth, and it would definitely be enough to take out any enemy who can’t swim.
Since labyrinths are generally monster-infested caverns, the aim of flooding one is usually to exterminate all the monsters inside.
The main drawback is that since the labyrinth will then be submerged, you won’t be able to go in and out anymore, nor would you be able to collect the monster corpses, I suppose.
But if your goal is simply to destroy all the monsters within, flooding might be the most effective method around.
Of course, if you’re really going to flood the place, you’d need a massive amount of water.
Just using Water Magic alone would require way too much MP to produce enough of it.
That means you’d have to physically have water on hand. Which only really works if, for instance, you can make a hole directly under the ocean, as this current situation nicely demonstrates.
So it’s not impossible. But the main reason Miss Ariel and the rest of us didn’t consider the possibility is because of our enemy’s goal.
Their entire aim is to get at the door to the core of the system, found deep in the Bottom Stratum of the Great Elroe Labyrinth here.
That means you physically have to go there, right?
And yet you’re going to submerge it underwater?
Um, hello? How stupid can you get?
It doesn’t seem like the act of any sane person, that’s for sure.
But I guess they probably figured they had to do something crazy to have a shot at victory.
I’m not sure whether our enemies know that Miss Ariel is in a weakened state, but even if they do, we’ve still got plenty of power to be reckoned with.
There’s the massive swarm of spider monsters, including the queen.
Then the puppet taratects: Ael, Sael, Riel, and Fiel.
And then there’s Kyouya, Merazophis, and yours truly.
That’s already enough to be a match for a thousand men or more, possibly past the point of being threatened by anything less than an ancient dragon.
On top of that, Phelmina and the Tenth Army seem to be operating independently outside the Great Elroe Labyrinth, too.
And then there’s the free-roaming monsters inside the labyrinth.
While most of them are neither enemies nor allies, the white spiderlike monsters known as the Nightmare’s Vestiges appear to be on our side.
White spider monsters…
They’ve got to be connected to Master, right?
…Well, it doesn’t really matter, as long as they’re going to fight for us.
We’d be here all day if I tried to question everything Master does anyway.
Honestly! When did she even have time to create such a freakishly powerful army?!
Ah, that wasn’t me questioning her, okay? It was, you know, rhetorical. Not a question, I swear…
At any rate, even the Nightmare’s Vestiges might have trouble with this flooding situation.
As much as I was hoping we could let them take care of just about everything, this attack and the enemy behind it might require some bigger guns.
I had better hurry, then.
I set one foot on the surface of the water.
Immediately, the area of water my foot touches freezes over.
I’m using my Freezing Attack skill to put a layer of ice over anything I touch.
The “Attack” series of skills, which apply a particular property to an attack, have power relative to the stats of the user.
With my impressively high stats, it’s so strong that it becomes the ability to freeze anything I touch instantaneously.
I keep running across the surface of the water, leaving a frozen path in my wake.
Freezing all the water surging inward, I prevent any further flooding.
Even I can’t freeze all the water that’s already filled up inside, of course.
But if I start freezing anything in sight, I can at least hold back the flooding somewhat.
Then I’ve just got to stop the flow of water at its source!
And in order to do that, I’ll have to go ahead and beat up the culprit!
Before long, I catch sight of a mermaid fighting off some Nightmare’s Vestiges.
She’s controlling the flow of water at will, using it to take out the spider monsters one after another.
A Nightmare’s Vestige gets engulfed in a sphere of water, then its body bursts.
Mermaids sure use nasty tricks for being so pretty and innocent-looking.
I’m guessing she’s flooding water into their bodies and forcing it outward to destroy them from the inside out.
If I remember right, most living things’ bodies are mainly composed of water. By forcing water of her own into any available orifice, she must be able to rupture their innards and make them explode.
That definitely seems like an unfair ability in this half-submerged battlefield.
The last thing I want is to go head-to-head against someone with such dangerous moves.
So I’ll finish her off in one go!
I close in on her from behind and swing my broadsword down on her neck!
But she dodges the blade by twisting out of the way without even turning around, then shoots water right back at me.
I freeze it in midair.
“Humph!”
“Hmph!”
The mermaid and I both huff in perfect harmony.
At the same time, I freeze the water around us, and close up the hole in the ceiling with ice.
The massive amount of water flowing in through the hole turns into an icicle.
That should stop any more water from getting in right away.
The shock waves freeze the rest of the water in the area, too.
The mermaid hurriedly leaps out of the water before she gets frozen in place, transforming her fish tail into normal human legs.
Um, excuse me, don’t you have any decency?!
No, wait, she’s got clothes on.
Even if it’s nothing but a skimpy swimsuit.
She’s fast not just at transforming, but also at changing into clothes.
The mermaid-turned-swimsuit-model floats in the air, carefully avoiding the ice.
“Not bad. I was hoping that would finish you off.”
“Oh dear, you really thought you could defeat me that easily? How embarrassing for you.”
We exchange casual taunts as we assess each other.
Noticing the woman glancing over at the Nightmare’s Vestiges, I use Appraisal to distract her.
Appraisal causes discomfort for the target, making it handy for situations like these.
The spiders scatter away while she’s busy grimacing at the sensation.
Looks like they’re escaping from the sunken Upper Stratum and heading outside.
Probably for the best, since it wouldn’t do them much good to stay in this half-submerged, half-frozen cavern.
Now, let’s have a look at those Appraisal results.
Water Dragon Iena? Ugh, of course…
Just as I suspected, this is the ancient dragon chief of the water dragons.
She’s the most troublesome of all the ancient dragons, according to Miss Ariel.
Just a glance at her stats is enough to explain that assessment.
All of them are over 25,000.
Come on, she’s even stronger than the queens!
I’ve certainly fought my share of legendary-class monsters, but this is my first time facing one as strong as this.
I guess she’s known as the strongest ancient dragon for good reason.
…Not that I’m worried about losing, of course.
Between all the legendary-class monsters I’ve beaten around the world, Master’s grueling training, and all the other nonsense I’ve been through, my stats are even higher than Water Dragon Iena’s.
As long as I don’t let my guard down, I can handle her just fine.
In which case…
“Let’s make this quick, shall we?!”