Infinite dendrogram volu.., p.8
Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 19, page 8
“A mobile save point...I heard you couldn’t use these to come back from a death penalty.”
“You cannot. But we did not use it for that, did we?”
There were three steps that led to wanted Masters being sent to the gaol. First, by getting on the wanted lists, they became unable to use save points. Then, they had to receive a death penalty. After that, they would return to the only save point they could access—the one inside the gaol—and were imprisoned there from then on. Even if they saved at a carriage with a save point, that save would vanish at the second step, making it impossible to come back that way. It was explained to Gerbera that the carriages were more like suspending the game and resuming it rather than a proper save.
“We, however, have simply logged out and logged back in again.” They’d saved at the Save Point Carriage while still imprisoned, and by taking it out now, they were able to create a login point that placed them outside the gaol.
“And Red King didn’t notice? He must have seen you save, right?” Gerbera was the only one who’d actually taken the inventory out of the gaol rather than use the Save Point Carriage, so she was curious about this.
“I observed Red King while I was in the gaol, and through my observations, I found out that he only has one visual point. He may be omniscient in the space he currently occupies, but recently, he has been avoiding the gaol itself because of the epidemic.”
“...Oh, I guess that was the other reason for spreading it.” Even if there were many of the monitor-like observation points inside the gaol, the observer couldn’t look through all of them at once. Things may have been different with Cheshire, who specialized in parallel operations, but Red King wasn’t like him.
Sechs had also confirmed that the other control AIs did not involve themselves with the matters of the gaol. He had learned some of this through chats with Red King himself, in fact.
They had also saved at the carriage while Red King had clearly been focusing on something else—Sechs while Hannya was trying to break out, and Candy while Sechs was talking to Red King.
Clearly, this mobile save point had been part of their escape plan for quite some time now.
“...By the way, did I have to go through this? Couldn’t we have just thrown the inventory out...? We have April, and she’s tough.” Gerbera figured that if they’d just given April the inventory with the Save Point Carriage, she wouldn’t have had to be shot out of a drill into a forest.
Sechs shook his head, though.
“You can make yourself impossible to perceive, but Red King could easily notice April. If he saw her inside the drill, he would have certainly done something about it. This was proved when he closed off the tunnel we used as a distraction. Using your skill was necessary to ensure a more secure prison break.”
“And what about my security...? Ugh,” Gerbera sighed as though she’d given up. “What were you planning to do while I wasn’t here, then?”
“I would have hidden myself instead—though I believe that would have been a great deal riskier than having you be the one inside the drill.”
Sechs had actually formulated a plan to break out of the gaol before he’d even added Sandalphon to his stock—and even before he’d been jailed. As King of Crime, Sechs had been going to the internet or DIN to gather info about the gaol’s workings, then using his findings to build an escape plan. Back then, he’d been planning to use a space-controlling Embryo he acquired before being jailed, but since it wouldn’t have had as much power as Sandalphon, the odds of success would’ve been lower, and Sechs would’ve lost far more volume—or rather, HP—than he’d lost now.
And since he now had Sandalphon, he’d removed all the other spatial Embryos from his stock.
The reason why Sechs had spent so much time in the gaol was because he was waiting for those outside to prepare, and because he’d thought he could craft a better escape plan by observing Hannya.
He was later joined by Candy and Gerbera, so one could say that his decision had been the correct one.
“I am very grateful that you came to the gaol,” he told Gerbera.
“...I see,” she replied.
Because he’d used Split Spirit to split into four, Sechs’s maximum HP had been reduced to just a quarter of its the original value, but that was still more than he would have had left in his original escape plans. “We have a long trip ahead of us, so I certainly appreciate having more HP,” he explained.
“I haven’t been on a big trip since my XP tour!” said Candy. “Where are we now, anyway?”
“This is a buffer zone between Altar and Legendaria... No, wait—it has recently become part of Altar. Still, I have quite a bit of nostalgia for this place,” Sechs said, recalling the time he cooperated with Shu.
This was the very place once dominated by the UBM known as Divine Disks, Spindle.
Sechs had noticed this when he’d watched Hannya try to break out of the gaol. The location he’d glimpsed through the gaps she opened was one that he would never forget, and he instantly knew exactly where in the world the gaol resided. Before then, he’d entertained the possibility that the gaol was somewhere off the continent—or perhaps even in space. That would have made the prison break more difficult. Discovering that it was in a familiar location made it much easier.
Perhaps the Divine Disks developed spatial manipulation powers precisely because Red King had built his gaol here, Sechs wondered. The creation of the gaol—the hidden realm built by manipulating space itself—may have influenced the evolution of the creature that had once resided here, or so he imagined.
“...Phew.” Eventually, Gerbera was completely healed. She then used Instant Wear to replace her damaged clothes and stood up. “So, what now?” she asked.
“No one passes through here, so we will simply avoid any unwanted attention and head toward Tenchi.”
“Is that so...?” Isn’t that a bit too far to go on foot? Gerbera wondered. Well, we have a carriage, so I guess we just need to get a horse or a landdragon or something.
Suddenly, April, who was standing next to her, looked up at the sky.
Gerbera, Sechs, and Candy all followed her gaze and did the same.
“‘No one ever passes through here,’ huh...? Are you sure about that?” Gerbera asked.
Their eyes were focused on one point in the sky—a black-clad Master, looking down at them in shock from astride a silver Prism Steed. Through coincidence or design, it was someone who had ties to the very person who had sent them to the gaol in the first place.
His name was Ray Starling.
◇◆◇
Gaol
“...I am thoroughly beaten,” Red King said as he stood in the gaol, now missing three of its most important prisoners.
Alice had explained to him the process they’d used to escape, and he had understood and come to terms with it. They’d since ended the call, and now, left alone with his thoughts, Red King was looking back on his actions.
“This feeling of defeat is somehow...wistful.” Since he’d lost his Master, Red King had rarely been forced to consider his flaws—the moments he had could be counted on one hand.
He’d gained three things from this entire ordeal—an important lesson, a new countermeasure, and a shapeless nostalgia.
“Sechs...I was unable to see your plan, and your thinking has surpassed mine. You deserve recognition for that.” The warden earnestly praised the prison breaker who’d risen above him. Red King may have failed to fulfill his duties, but he couldn’t help but be honest about this. “However, not even you can see through everything. And because of that...you may very well be back here soon.”
The words that he spoke were not those of a sore loser—he genuinely believed what he was saying.
Red King had enough reason to believe that.
“When you were in the gaol, you could only learn about the outside indirectly.”
Red King, the ruler of space, could see the multiple entities approaching the escapees right now.
To the north, flying from the city of Gideon, was a Master known as Ray Starling. He was one who would be placed on the side of good, and thus he would certainly clash with Sechs, who went out of his way to be evil.
However, he was not a major problem. Ray’s brother may have been capable of it, but the odds of Ray himself stopping Sechs were unbelievably low.
But there was someone else.
The moment Sechs had transformed into Sandalphon and drilled through space, influencing the outside world, an entity far more fearsome had sprung into action.
Red King checked the surroundings of the gaol—and indeed, there he saw them. From the south of the gaol, from the domain in Legendaria, a massive group was on the approach.
“There are many stories that only truly begin after the escape.”
Thus, the control AI who had stood against the prisoners began monitoring the events outside. The participant became a spectator, and he settled in to watch the second act.
Chapter Four: Encounters
Sorcerer, Ray Starling
We were on the way to the leveling zone at the very south of the kingdom.
Before heading out, I’d changed my job to Sorcerer. The reason for this was, once again, the axe.
The immense grudge permeating the thing had convinced me that the damage it did to me was curse-based. And since Sorcerer was a job that granted skills that inflicted curses as well as skills that increased resistance to them, I’d picked it up to see if it would have an effect on the axe. If it reduced the damage, great. If it didn’t, I’d just drop the job whenever I needed a low-rank job slot.
“I feel as though you are on the path to wielding both Paladin and Dark Knight,” said Nemesis.
“...That’s not totally out of the question.” I’d heard that mixing sorcerer and knight groupings was the path that led to the dark knight job. It seemed like a combo Juliet would love.
Oh, and it would make me kinda like the protag of the fourth entry in a certain retro RPG series, so Shu would probably like it too.
“Perhaps it is not such a bad idea. It might lead you to a mixed Superior Job,” Nemesis added. I guess it would be like Xunyu’s Master Jiangshi—she got that by combining the Jiangshi job with the Daoshi grouping.
“But I feel like there’s a lot of people who’ve gone down this route. I mean, it’s a pretty classic concept.”
A champion who wielded both dark and light seemed like a tale as old as time. Someone must’ve tried it already, and since it didn’t seem like anybody had found a mixed Superior Job as a result, it probably didn’t exist—or it was a lost job with crazy specific conditions for unlocking it.
“Instead of daydreaming about a still-distant Superior Job, we should focus on the leveling we must do right now.”
“Yeah. Let’s level until we get the resistance skill.”
When we had it, we were going to use our arena to see if the skill had an effect. If it didn’t, I’d switch jobs later and level again.
“...Hm?” As I rode Silver through the skies, I heard a strange sound. It was faint and coming from far away, but I could tell that it would be really loud if I were closer to it.
It was a low hum, like something massive destroying something else, though I couldn’t tell if it was shattering something tough or tearing apart something soft.
The hum was accompanied by a distant, destructive sound that resembled none I’d ever heard.
I might’ve been imagining it, but it kind of reminded me of a sound I’d once heard in Gideon—the noise made by Sandalphon.
“Let’s check it out,” I said. A strange and vague uneasiness was gripping my heart too, so I couldn’t help but change course toward the sound.
“I feel as though we are heading toward trouble yet again,” said Nemesis.
That’s all the more reason to go there, I replied in thought. This place is pretty close to Gideon, you know?
And so, we moved toward the sound. We made it there in no time—and sure enough, something had been happening here. I could tell that much even from a distance.
“...That one doesn’t look so good,” I muttered.
There was a woman lying on the ground, covered in blood. Another woman stood beside her and was working on healing her wounds.
Then, standing right by a carriage with no horse or landdragon attached, there was a woman wearing a maid’s uniform. It made her stand out, but I knew a guy who wore a bear costume constantly, so in comparison it didn’t seem that weird.
And finally, there was one person I couldn’t see fully because there were trees in the way, but glimpsed some girls’ clothing at least.
It looked like a party of four women, and something had happened here that had injured one of them. She was being treated now, but even from here, I could see that the unfortunate girl had actually lost some parts of her body. Even a high-rank job would have a hard time treating that. They’d probably need Miss Eldritch to fully heal—
“Huh...?” My thought was cut short as I realized that the bloodied woman was in perfect health now.
Wow...I didn’t think there was someone besides Miss Eldritch who could treat something like that so fast, I thought. Maybe it’s an Embryo skill?
“Oh...” As I looked at them in shock, the women all looked up at me too.
My eyes met the healer’s gaze.
I felt that it would be rude to just turn around here and leave, so I decided to make Silver go down to them. Also, one of them had been badly injured, so they might’ve gotten into trouble they needed help with.
It sort of felt like Silver was paying extra attention to the woman in the maid uniform, but I had no idea why.
“Hm...?” Suddenly, I heard something. Unlike before, it wasn’t the sound of something giant. It was more like the sound of many small things moving at once. “What is that...?”
It was coming from the south.
◆◆◆
The Southernmost Edge of Altar, A Mountain Forest Near the Border
Seeing Ray descend put Gerbera into a panic. Why is he here...? she thought.
She already knew who he was. Back when she had been trying to provoke Shu by framing him for a crime, she’d also looked into his brother. Even if she hadn’t done all of that, Ray Starling had become a fairly famous figure after his deeds during Franklin’s Game.
She certainly knew more about him than she would about some random duel ranker, and the fact that he’d happened to be here at this point in time was more than a little unexpected.
What do we even do in this situation? she wondered.
There was no doubt that they’d win if they fought him. The odds of Ray emerging victorious in a battle against three Superiors were beyond low. However, fighting him would still have been a bad decision. If they fought, Ray would find out who they were—and since he was close to their enemies, they would learn about Illegal Frontier’s escape too. Even if Ray got the death penalty, he’d be able to share info about them via online messages or social media in the real world.
If people found out their approximate location, that would be an absolute disaster for them. Anyone could then prepare a kill squad that could give them the death penalty again—
Sechs currently only had a quarter of his HP, while Gerbera’s trusted Alhazred was in no state for combat.
If they were sent to the gaol again, it would be difficult for them to escape using the same means. Sechs had lost his levels, while Hannya must’ve leveled up since leaving the gaol. It was possible that Hannya would be removed from Sechs’s stock of transformations while they were preparing for the second try.
And there was the fact that Red King could have already set up a protection against their trick that would make sure it never worked again.
We could run...but that’s a gamble too, Gerbera thought.
They could maybe escape the danger if they all logged out at the same time. However, the logout process required thirty seconds of zero contact with anybody. That was enough time for Ray to remember their faces. Sechs was currently transformed into The Saint, so he was safe from being recognized, but Ray might spot Candy. If that happened, it was possible that someone would just camp this area and wait for them to log back in.
And if they fled normally instead of logging out, it would only make Ray more suspicious—he could even chase after them to find out why they’d run away. He was also riding a speedy Prism Steed, so it was questionable if they even could run away from him.
Then how about we just kill him really quick...? Wait, no, that won’t work...! In the recent peace talks, it was revealed that Ray had the Death Soldier skill. Even if they killed him, he would stay around for almost a minute—more than enough time to get info about them and take it back.
Also, though Gerbera could only see Ray right now, it was possible that he wasn’t alone. He could have friends nearby—maybe even Shu and Rook themselves. Ray was actually all by himself, but Gerbera had just escaped the gaol and had basically no information about the outside, so her fear was hardly unreasonable.
This isn’t good... He’s the worst person we could’ve bumped into right now! Ray didn’t die right away even if killed, and he had ties to powerful people he could inform about them.
Gerbera had no idea how they had to deal with this, so she decided to leave the thinking to Sechs and Candy.
However...
“...Nhuh?”
...when she looked at them, she saw something that filled her with shock.
Sechs was still assuming the form of The Saint, but in his right hand he held a sword that must’ve been an Embryo from his stock. Candy was in the process of activating Resheph.
They were obviously getting ready to fight.
“Huh? Are we really doing this?! We’re actually gonna fight?!” Gerbera was pretty sure that they—or at least Sechs—would’ve come to the same conclusions she had.
Then again, perhaps they had thought this through even more thoroughly than her and still decided that simply killing Ray Starling was the way to go.
