Gideon, City of Duels, Eighth Arena
“Anyway, let’s get this started for real! Face me! Challenge me with all you got!” And with that, G fell backward into the dark water and began sinking into it—inside her own Embryo. But then...
“Blackwing Requiem!”
“You’re not gettin’ away! Bladescale Hail!”
Having resolved to fight, Juliet and Max attacked G, attempting to prevent her escape.
“Oh, what a barrage! So intense! Sadly...”
However, both Hræsvelgr’s black light projectiles and Ipetam’s blades...
“They can’t reach the bottom of the sea.”
...were deflected by the water and failed to touch her.
The water that covered G didn’t seem more than a few centimeters deep—and yet it completely blocked the attacks, letting her sink within.
Juliet’s eyes widened as Max shouted, “What’s going on?!”
“The Superior Embryo, R’lyeh,” said Chelsea. “It’s not immediately obvious, but under the water is an entirely different world.”
Type Invasion Labyrinth, “Encroaching Sea-Altar, R’lyeh.”
Standing next to Tsukuyo Fuso’s Kaguya, it was one of the few Embryos crowned with the “Invasion” type. Though Kaguya and R’lyeh targeted different things, they were similar in that they ate away at the world outside of their boundaries.
The water—in other words, its outer shell—acted as an entrance linking R’lyeh to the rest of the world and allowed it to consume things with its ult, but at its core, R’lyeh itself was an independent universe.
Even if the water looked shallow from the outside, there was no telling how deep of an abyss it really was.
Thus, attacks that couldn’t pass through its entrance would never strike R’lyeh.
“That water is an entrance that only allows living beings through. It totally rejects attacks and stuff,” said Chelsea.
“I thought Ipetam’s blades could be counted as part of its body, but I guess they aren’t.”
“What do we do, then?!” Max asked.
“Basically, if we wanna beat the Overlord, we gotta enter her dungeon.”
That was a classic RPG scenario. However, entering the enemy’s territory was still a scary thing to do, especially when the entrance was a pool of dark water protected by tentacles and there was no telling what lay beyond.
“I guess that makes her basically the same as ZZZ in that regard,” said Ray. “Still...!”
The man who’d already been dragged into an Overlord’s domain and overcome it didn’t back down a single step.
“I’m going in!” Ray dismounted Silver with no hesitation and led the charge.
Assuming that his steed’s air-walking abilities wouldn’t work underwater, he simply jumped in there by himself.
“Whoa! No hesitation at all!” said Chelsea.
“I’m going too!” said Juliet, jumping in right after Ray.
A moment later, the world completely changed.
“Huh...?!”
The second her whole body was submerged, she found herself very suddenly out of the water.
But she was no longer in the Eighth Arena where she had just been standing either.
She was now inside of a damp, dimly lit cave, filled with a fishy stench. There was a wall behind her, and the only way to go was a tunnel straight ahead.
“Where...?” Looking around, she saw that Ray was already there, and they were soon joined by Chelsea and Max.
“Huh?! We’re not actually underwater!” Max exclaimed. She’d equipped an accessory to help her breathe in the water, but this unexpected sight meant her caution had been all for naught.
“Ugh... I figured you’d choose this place, but man...” Meanwhile, Chelsea put her hand on her head as though she had just realized something unpleasant.
“What do you mean?”
“What does she mean? This is what she means!” G’s voice resounded from somewhere unseen, responding to Juliet’s question. G herself was nowhere in sight, and there were no visible speakers, but this place was basically the inside of her Embryo. Thus, it made perfect sense that she was able to talk to them like this. “My R’lyeh is unbelievably wide and deep! It contains many of the places I’ve helped myself to! It’s like an amusement park! Is that a good comparison?”
R’lyeh was an underwater otherworld. Most of its vast area was a sunken seabed, but there were some places that were quite different. Those were the locations that she had “helped herself” to—or, rather, had stolen from people. The dvergar mountain mines, the lionkin citadel, the hidden elf forest—they were all places that were important to powerful Legendarian tribes, and they were most of the reason she was a wanted criminal.
“I can choose where intruders end up. Though, while the ult is active, the rules prevent me from putting you too far away from me or the trapezohedron. Well, regardless, this time you’ll find both at the end of this dungeon! That’s your goal!”
Like the Legendarian locations inside R’lyeh, this was another place that she’d cut out and taken for herself, but this one was different in one respect. It didn’t have a previous owner.
“I had a really hard time in this dungeon. I’m sure it won’t be easy for you too!”
“Huh? What is this place, anyway?” Max asked. G chuckled a little before saying...
“Ever heard of the Depths of Jealousy?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Gideon, City of Duels, Central Arena
In one of the box seats of the Central Arena, overlooking the raging-hot final match, F kept one of his eyes closed in order to view the scenery of another world.
So she did end up choosing that place, he thought. While his open eye watched the battle between Figaro and Albert, he simultaneously observed his little sister’s own event.
Since only living beings and their possessions could pass through the surface of R’lyeh, F had asked her ahead of time to bring some of his Zodiacs inside. That had been his compensation for guiding Ray there.
R’lyeh’s ultimate cuts off the land itself. It can steal entire mountains and castles, but that dungeon took it an entire night, and it still only managed to absorb a part of it... I suppose Overlord dungeons are just that exceptional.
Overlord dungeons—challenging, trial-filled labyrinths that bestowed a Superior Job from the Overlord series upon anyone who cleared them.
G was now using this as the challenge for her current game.
Her previous games had ranged from direct confrontations to speed mining events where her victims were forced to mine up the trapezohedron within the time limit. But this time, she’d chosen something that was not quite so straightforward, but also not particularly unorthodox either—a traditional dungeon full of challenges that Ray and Juliet would have to overcome.
She’s very enthusiastic about this one, F thought. He knew his sister well enough to guess what she was thinking.
A dungeon with an Overlord waiting at the end didn’t just make for a good spectacle—it was also the place where G could use her combat style to the fullest. It was clear that she was very motivated for this one.
That was exactly why F was somewhat concerned, though.
Will they be able to clear the dungeon in time? he wondered.
Because Overlord dungeons granted a Superior Job while ignoring prior jobs and talents, they were all extremely difficult to clear. The Depths of Jealousy dungeon that had chosen the current Overlord Invidia was no exception. Though she’d only cut away a part of it, making the dungeon far more compact, F still wondered if they could make it through within the time limit.
I suppose I will just have to wait and see. Despite his concern for his own research and his sister’s event, F continued simply watching things unfold.