Paladin, Ray Starling
We ran and ran down a long, straight passage.
Even though we were still activating traps, they were all the kind that came with the Depths of Jealousy. It didn’t seem like we were encountering anything else that G added herself.
My guess was that since we got past the mid-boss, she had no intention of stopping us now.
It felt like she actually wanted us to reach the end of the dungeon—like she really did want us to come to her.
That was exactly what was strange about G—an ordinary thief would never act like this. If all she wanted was to complete her ult and take our arena, she could’ve done a lot more to stop us.
However, she’d set up the time limit and the obstacles in our way to make this as close as possible—almost like she was balancing a game.
I’d seen a few of her videos, and it never seemed like she was trying to create a situation where her enemies had no hope of winning. I got the impression that, while she didn’t want to lose, she was also prioritizing something over certain victory. It was much like how her brother would do anything for his research.
But if that was the case, then what was G’s main goal...?
“Hm?” As we proceeded, the passage drastically changed. Its cave-like appearance was suddenly replaced by man-made stone construction, and the lighting now came not from dimly glowing crystals, but magic lights that activated when we came closer.
The overall effect reminded me of a dark lord’s castle from an old RPG, and the lights guided us deeper in.
“I didn’t see this area,” I muttered. One of G’s videos I’d watched had been set in the Depths of Jealousy, but the Masters she’d picked a fight with had all been defeated by the fearsome traps and the rest of G’s clan.
At the end of the video, she’d said something like, “The defense has too much of an advantage here! I should really be more cautious about using this place!” It seemed like she’d decided we were the right opponents to challenge the Depths of Jealousy.
“Hmm... Lights and stone,” said Nemesis. “I do not see any traps here, but this is quite a view...”
“This must just be what G likes,” said Juliet. “It does look really good.”
She wasn’t wrong. If this hadn’t been a path leading us directly to an enemy, I would have stopped to admire the style and beauty on display here.
The passage soon ended, though, and we arrived at our goal—a strange room that seemed like a mix of the natural and man-made sections of the dungeon. The floor and walls were entirely covered in dark-gray rectangles of stone, and the light of the eerie chandelier hanging from the ceiling disrupted the shadows cast by the tapestries on the walls.
But where the wall farthest from the entrance should have been, there was instead a plunge pool with a blue waterfall endlessly flowing into it.
And enshrined right before it, there was a throne too large for any human.
“Greetings, brave intruders! I bid you welcome! You are the first to ever make it to my throne room!” Overlord Invidia, G was waiting for us. Her legs dangled as she sat on the oversized throne and looked at us in glee. “Well? What do you think? Me and my clan worked so hard to renovate this place, but no one could make it this far, so I haven’t even gotten to reveal it until now! Thanks for the opportunity!”
“Um... Uh... You’re welcome?” G’s genuine happiness made Juliet a bit perplexed. “Ummm... If you’re satisfied now...could you please stop trying to take Ray’s arena...?”
“That is one thing! This is another! We’re playing this out until the bitter end!” G denied Juliet’s request with a smile. “You got about twenty minutes left! That’s enough time for a good climax! You’ve got a dungeon! You’ve got an Overlord! It’d be a waste to end it now!”
G then hopped off the throne, stood up, and took out her weapon.
My eyes widened. It was a sinister-looking trident, perfectly suited for a devil.
However, it was absurdly large.
Its length exceeded five metels, making it over three times larger than the girl who held it. The edges and the grip were appropriately thick too—it seemed far too unwieldy for someone her size.
“What’s her fighting style, anyway...?” Juliet wondered, and I couldn’t blame her.
The Overlord series of jobs could be acquired by anyone who cleared the associated dungeons. This meant they had no prerequisite jobs, which made it difficult for Juliet to guess her powers. I’d seen some of her videos, but I wasn’t that much better informed than she was. All I knew was her basic combat style and the fact that she stole locations and added them to her Embryo.
Based on the video of her breaking into Titania’s live concert, her stats were about on the same level as a vanguard SJ, and she was a well-rounded combatant who fought using a mix of weaponry and magic.
But that also meant that she didn’t have the kinds of standout combat abilities you’d expect from a Superior...and I hadn’t seen her use that huge trident in any of the videos I watched.
“Well, I don’t think the Embryo itself is the type that contributes to the battle directly...” I said.
“Oh? So you didn’t watch all of my videos?” G asked, tilting her head.
“Sadly, I only started watching recently. I only managed to watch the newest ones.”
“So... That means you saw the band battle and the recent dungeon raid I set up when I was bored. Well, that’s understandable, then. I get it,” she said as she let out a sigh, then smiled again. “That means...you’ll get to see everything live!”
The relaxed atmosphere instantly became one of extreme tension.
The aura of powerful creatures was something I’d encountered many times in this world. This Overlord had it too, and was directing it right toward us...
My eyes widened. Right—while she seemed like a fun-loving, mischievous type of person, someone we could have a casual chat with, there was now no doubt that she was also an Overlord.
There weren’t even double-digit numbers of her kind in the world, and she—Overlord Invidia, one of Desire’s Superiors—was among the most powerful.
“Action!”
With that word as the signal, G made her move.
She swung her treelike trident as if to sweep us away. As the massive weapon hurtled toward me at the speed of sound, I swung my halberd up to meet it.
I was empowered by seven buffs, but the weight of the attack still pushed me backward. It wasn’t enough to break my stance, though.
But as if taking advantage of this moment, Overlord Invidia held up her left hand and cast some sort of dark magic, firing ten projectiles of black light toward me.
“Blackwing Requiem!”
They all failed to reach me. As I was pushed backward, Juliet fired a volley of her own dark magic, canceling out G’s.
While their magic clashed, Juliet moved at supersonic speeds to close the distance between them.
The sight made G’s eyes widen.
Juliet had great combat instincts even by duelist standards—only the likes of Figaro could match her. Even other SJs would have a hard time countering her movements. Now, she was trying to land an attack on G before she could swing that trident again. The Overlord didn’t have enough time to intercept it.
“Ah ha ha ha ha! In that case... Take this!”
But it was Juliet’s turn to be shocked as her flight trajectory was abruptly changed.
I noticed a thread of light extending from one of the three points of the trident.
“Got you, little fishy!” G taunted, and the thread of light began winding back.
Juliet was forcefully, at a high speed, being dragged toward the tip of the trident.
“It pulls enemies into it!” That meant they could effectively negate the distance between allies and enemies—very useful in any battle.