Chapter 3—Emmymephy’s Perspective

Emmymephy, the princess of the Laverio Empire. She had blue hair, red eyes that resembled her supposed ancestor the Ivory Goddess, and a flat chest that did not resemble the Ivory Goddess’s. Not too long ago she went to Goren town with Wataru to take Keima and his party to the imperial capital, only to be kidnapped by an extremist Holy Kingdom faction on the way back. She still remembered spending her imprisonment with Rokuko and the others in the Goddess of the Pond’s bubble jail like it was a vacation.

...It had been such a pleasant time that despite fulfilling the fortune that she would be kidnapped, she felt as if they had made a mistake, though in the end it seemed to be fine.

One day, out of the blue, someone came to Emmymephy with a job—investigating a dungeon. She herself hadn’t heard of that until just now due to the need to prepare guards, but all the preparations had finally been made.

“Investigating a dungeon? I say, that sounds like a bore. Send my body double instead,” Emmymephy replied lazily to the guard who came to inform her of the news.

“E-Erm... But arrangements have been made, princess.”

“I am presently so occupied with those rumors that I have no time for dungeons!”

The rumors she spoke of were regarding a certain songstress—a rabbit beastkin who adorned herself in adorable clothing, danced like a professional, and frolicked across the stage with little rabbits. She was calling herself an idol, whatever that meant.

“Her name is Ichigo, I believe. I heard one of her songs from a traveling minstrel in town, and goodness if it wasn’t the cutest song I’ve ever heard!”

“Princess, you snuck out of the castle again?”

“Th-That matters not.” Emmymephy launched into a chorus of “I want these feelings to reach you you yooou!” to change the subject and avoid suspicion. But not only did that fail to change the subject at all, it also proved that she had visited the lower city enough to learn the song.

“In any case, I hear that this songstress is about to release a new song in a matter of days! I want to hear that song as soon as possible, and if possible, right away! But the songstress is not a member of any theater group, and her identity is shrouded in mystery. Apparently she can only be seen by the chosen furries... But I say, what’s a furry?”

“Furries are those who love animals. In particular they love cute, fluffy animals with lots of fur.” The imperial knight responded quickly in a somewhat forceful tone. Emmymephy felt the weight behind his words and faltered.

“...Well, in any case, I cannot allow myself to miss any details. I must know the moment news arrives in the capital. Thus, I cannot take one step outside!” Emmymephy declared. Hence her wanting them to send her body double instead. Let’s pretend that wasn’t more or less her announcing that she planned to sneak out of the castle again to stay up to date on everything.

And that was when the imperial knight grinned. “In that case, I believe you will want to go on the mission all the more. After all, it is in this dungeon that the idol will be performing her new song.”

“Say that sooner! Nothing shall stop me from going!” Emmymephy declared, quite enthusiastically agreeing to investigate the dungeon. “I will acquire front row seats and watch from as close as the physical barriers permit! It is time for my authority as royalty to do something good for once!” she continued, her resolve steeled.

“Princess, do you know how idol shows operate?”

“Do not take me for a fool. I know all about clapping, large fans, and glow sticks!” Emmymephy said with a confident laugh, and the imperial guard calmly nodded.

“Impressive. Do you know about phalanxes and tag teaming, then?”

“Um... Pha-whats?” Emmymephy asked with a tilted head. The imperial guard shook his head.

“These are the basic principles of wotagei, princess.”

“Wotagei...?”

“Oh, are you unfamiliar with the term? Forgive me, princess, you were so confident I thought for sure you knew it.”

Wotagei was when members of the audience danced in sync with idols to show support. One such dance was the phalanx, wherein you used your large fan to protect the person on your left while pumping your glow stick with your right hand. Tagteaming was switching places with the person on your left quickly, within a single beat of the song.

“...Are you saying that I must learn so that I may appreciate the art myself?!”

“It is a form of support that can only be done if everyone is deeply in tune with each other. And it is for this reason that it is worth doing!” the imperial guard said firmly. He was so serious that Emmymephy ended up agreeing with his point.

“But does everyone truly know this?”

“All true fans of Ichigo must do it. If you dislike it, you may watch at the back row. You will still be able to see her cuteness thanks to the stands rising in height like a theater.”

“...The road of being a fan is harsh! But should there not be a special seat for me, since I am royalty?”

“No. It is not actually a theater, and you are going to investigate the dungeon. At most you will be allowed to skip a line or two. And incidentally, one must perform wotagei to watch from the front row.”

Emmymephy desperately tried to avoid it, but was cut down hard. She wouldn’t be able to watch from the front row if she didn’t learn the phalanx and tag teaming.

“I-I say, how horrible! I must learn this wotagei at once!”

“Very well then. I can teach you,” the imperial guard said, which finally made Emmymephy realize something. “Pray tell, why do you know so much about this?”

“All true fans of Ichigo know this much. Oh, and do you have an Ichigo-themed happi coat? You can buy one on-site, but you must wear one the day of.”

“Wh-What in the... I’ve never seen you smile this hard!”

Emmymephy wasn’t the only one eager to go on the dungeon investigation—the members of her imperial guard were as well.

And so they all went to the [Rabbit Rest Spot]. On the way Emmymephy was taught within her carriage the ways of the phalanx and tag teaming by her imperial guards. In a shocking twist, almost all members of the imperial guard knew wotagei, and they were quite fervent practitioners of it. They resembled a dancing group themselves, even.

“Aaand here is where the live show is held.”

“You’re not even pretending anymore, are you?” Emmymephy asked. Her guards were no longer pretending to hide their excitement, but since Emmymephy was also pumped up, she just brushed it off with a smile.

In any case, they did need to give the dungeon a cursory investigation at the very least. Emmymephy headed to the entrance of the dungeon, where there were stands and a bunch of people lined up.

“I say, what is sold here?”

“Ahhh, they sell the big fans, happi coats, and glow sticks here.”

“I shall buy them all!”

“Understood! Sir, I’m Emperor Approved Ichigo Fan Club who reserved an item set. Here’s my ticket.”

The guard handed over a ticket and was given a box with the three items inside. For a second it seemed like they were cutting in line, but those who reserved items through the fan club could skip lines since all they had to do was give a ticket and get the items. He had apparently ordered under a fake name to keep this imperial visit a secret, but...

“Couldn’t you have thought up a more, erm, proper name?”

“Hm? Princess, are you telling me you don’t want to be part of Ichigo’s fan club?”

“I didn’t say anything close to that.”

On second thought, Emmymephy was a fan and didn’t really mind that at all. She took her set of items from the box, and saw that it was filled with plenty more.

“Wait, what? I thought you already owned all of these items.”

“What are you talking about? It’s common sense to buy new ones when you arrive,” the imperial guard said with a look of confusion. Emmymephy, without really thinking about it, accepted that it was common sense that she just didn’t know about.

“...By the way, what were those tickets all about?” she asked. The imperial guard had been given tickets after buying the items.

“Hm? They’re handshake tickets,” he said like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“Handshake tickets?”

“They’re tickets that can be exchanged for shaking Ichigo’s hand for ten seconds. You get one for free if you buy a full item set.”

A ticket which earned one the right to shake the hand of the one you admired. It was easy to see how that encouraged more sales.

“You can also get one in exchange for returning spent glow sticks. Though this way was introduced first.”

“Interesting.”

People coming for the first time got a ticket through buying an item set, while people returning got one for returning their glow sticks. It was standard practice for everyone to end up getting one every time.

Glow sticks were magic tools that shone and were disposed of after use, but presumably they had found some other purpose for them. Putting up a ticket reward for their return was pretty clever.

“But wait. Haven’t you all been here before? Why are you buying sets again?”

“To get more handshake tickets, of course. Oh, and fear not, we are paying with our own money, not the Empire’s.”

...Well, in that case, there was no need for Emmymephy to say anything in particular about it. The imperial guards were free to use their pay as they liked. Even if they wasted it, that just put the money back in the economy.

“Glow sticks are technically an expenditure, so you can consider those part of the budget if you would like.”

“Oh, no, there’s a certain pride in buying these with our own money.”

Emmymephy honestly didn’t understand why that mattered, but she decided not to push the subject. Everyone had their own way of spending their money.

In any case, she decided to take a closer look at the glow stick she had been given. There was a string dangling at the end of the stick, and once pulled it would glow for about four hours before fading. The pulled string could be used to tie the glow stick to your wrist, making it harder to lose it by accidentally throwing it. Again, pretty clever. It was well-made.

“Don’t pull the string yet.”

“I know that. What I don’t know is where these were made. They don’t seem to be from the Hero Workshop.”

“I’ve heard they’re supplied by the Narikin Company. The fans and happi coats are from there too.”

That wasn’t a name she was familiar with.

“Are they a proper organization?”

“Absolutely. They’ve been given official royal permission to operate.”

Emmymephy determined that they weren’t a problem, since their goods were high quality and they had a permit.

“Incidentally, princess. This dungeon has another attraction, one it was founded on.”

“Another attraction?”

“Take a look at this, if you would.”

There stood a sign next to the dungeon entrance. The sign said “There are cute rabbits here. Please be nice to them.”

“I say, what’s this about rabbits?”

“As you are no doubt aware by now, princess, over half of us are fans of Ichigo,” the imperial guard said suddenly, confusing Emmymephy. Seeing that, he continued. “It’s also the case that over half of us are fans of the rabbits here.”

“You are... fans of the rabbits?”

“You will understand soon enough. Oh, and there is a Safe Zone right at the entrance, so take care not to draw your weapon.”

“Very well, then.”

The guard familiar with the dungeon (who was apparently a fan of both Ichigo and the rabbits) guided Emmymephy down the stairs, and at the bottom there was a grassy plain stretching out into the distance. It was a Safe Zone, just as she had been told ahead of time.

“This seems like quite the large space.”

“Indeed. It’s large enough that the performance area and rest spot can coexist without getting in each other’s way. At first it was more cramped, but over time it increased in size.”

Emmymephy looked around for the performance area and saw a stone rectangle that served as a stage. It seemed that Ichigo would sing and dance on that stage alongside the rabbits.

“When will the new song be performed?”

“Tonight. May I suggest killing time in the rest spot until then?” the guard answered before pointing at the rest spot. She followed his finger and saw that there were a bunch of adventurers, most of them sitting down and having friendly chats.

“I know this is a Safe Zone, but they are letting their guard down far too much.”

“Can you blame them? They came here to relax in the first place.”

A closer look revealed that there were rabbits among the adventurers. They were white and covered in fluffy fur. Some of them were fat and round, too, no doubt full of tasty meat.

“They are playing with the rabbits.”

“...Rabbits? Truly?”

“Well, this is the [Rabbit Rest Spot], if you remember.”

“I say, even I’ve hunted rabbits before.”

“RABBITS ARE NOT FOR HUNTING!” the imperial guard roared before faltering. “E-Excuse me, princess. I did not mean to raise my voice.”

“Worry not. I should have known that would not be appreciated here.”

The rabbits were pretty enough to be the pets of nobility, after all. Anyone would be furious if someone suggested their pets should be killed and eaten. It would be like talking about talking about hunting birds while someone was in the middle of showing off the pleasant singing of their pet bird.

...That said, the attention Emmymephy and her guard had attracted was all warm-hearted. Everyone was smiling, like they were used to newcomers acting like this. Perhaps everyone went through the same process.

That was when one of the white rabbits hopped up to Emmymephy’s feet. It sat for a second, then started rubbing its whole fluffy body against them.

“I say?! This is quite the friendly rabbit.”

“But of course. They’re so friendly they didn’t even hesitate to rub against the infamously terrifying adventurer Tokoi.”

“Truly?! Now that is surprising, I say!”

Don Tokoi the B-Rank adventurer was famous even in the imperial capital. He was well known for being a kind man who loved children despite how he looked. But that didn’t change how terrifying he looked. He was also famous for carrying around honeyed candy for kids at all times. But that really didn’t change how utterly terrifying he looked. Also, he showed no mercy to his enemies, and was just as brutal as he looked when necessary. Indeed. He looked terrifying. So terrifying that when Emmymephy had gone to see him in hopes of getting candy, she had actually turned right around and fled after seeing his face.

“...I say, these rabbits are incredible.”

“And fluffy. Try picking one up,” suggested the imperial guard, and so Emmymephy gently picked one up. It was like a small fluffy ball of softness that snuggled into her arms while looking at her with big, cute eyes.

“Princess, I have bought vegetable sticks,” the imperial guard said while holding out a cup with vegetables in it. They were cut into thin sticks so that they would be easier for the rabbits to eat. People could eat the sticks too and enjoy them just fine, but they were for the rabbits.

“W-Wait, what do I do with them?”

“I will hold the rabbit. Please feed him in the meantime,” the imperial guard said while trading the vegetable sticks for the fluff ball rabbit. Despite thinking that he probably did that just because he wanted to hold the rabbit himself, Emmymephy went ahead and held out a vegetable stick to the rabbit’s mouth.

Nom nom, chew chew, nom nom.

“O-Oh...?” Emmymephy gasped as the rabbit obediently ate the stick. “Goodness! Now I won’t be able to eat rabbit anymore...!”

“Indeed! At last you truly understand!” shouted the imperial guard in agreement. And as you would expect, the attention that attracted was warm and gentle. It was like they were saying “Right? We all know the feeling.”

“...I see. Now I can understand why everyone is so relaxed.”

“Yes, princess! Please play with the rabbits to your heart’s content! There is still some time before the live show begins!” declared the imperial guard. He said there was still ‘some time,’ but in reality there was a ton of time. Emmymephy decided to play with them until she had her fill.

“Princess, a local authority wishes to greet you.”

“Greet me? Oh, yes, I came here on an official investigation. I had forgotten entirely,” Emmymephy said, having shifted gears completely into playing with the rabbits despite her duties.

A female adventurer approached Emmymephy while bowing her head deeply. “Princess Emmymephy, if I may be permitted to speak, it is an honor beyond words to be graced with your presence.”

“Good day to you, I say. You may lift your head. And also, no need for all the formality, Rinnew.”

“...Yes, your highness! If you will excuse me, then... What?! Mephy? What the heck are you doing here?” Rinnew blinked in surprise, recognizing Mephy as a girl she had seen around the imperial capital before.

“What do you mean, what? I am the imperial princess, and I am here to investigate the dungeon in an official capacity.”

“Whoa, Mephy, I didn’t know you were one of the imperial princess’s body doubles.”

“...Well, think that if you like.”

Emmymephy was an adventurer as well, though mostly for show. It was the duty of all members of the imperial family to secretly register with the Adventurer’s Guild that the First Empress Haku created. It would have been more unusual for one of them to not have crossed paths with Rinnew before while acting as a normal adventurer in the imperial city. And Emmymephy was no exception. No doubt Rinnew would have an easier time accepting that her friend worked as a body double for the princess than she would accepting that her friend was the princess.

“In any case, this is a royal investigation, so I expect your highest accommodations.”

“Yeah, you can count on me. I may not look it, but I’m one of the top dogs of this rest spot,” Rinnew said with a nasty grin (that she thought was a bright smile). It left quite an impression. “Oh, and right. These little guys are pretty smart, y’know. They only eat vegetable sticks from our official shops.”

“Official shops?”

“They’re official food stands with vegetables ordered from the Narikin Company. Some people try to bring in unofficial vegetables, but the rabbits don’t eat them at all,” Rinnew said while feeding a rabbit standing by her feet.

“What would the rabbits eat if nobody bought the vegetable sticks?”

“Well, they’d eat some of the grass growing around. That’s what they did before we came around.”

Indeed. Rabbits could eat grass. The plains themselves were their main source of food. Regardless of whether they had vegetable sticks or not, as long as they lived here they would never starve.

“I say, that makes sense.”

“By the way, the bathroom’s over there. If a rabbit starts hopping that way, don’t stop ’em.”

“Roger.”

They even had a section for using the bathroom laid out. If you kept a pet you’d have problems dealing with their waste, but here the rabbits were trained to not just let it go wherever they stood.

“Is that why they look so clean?”

“Yeah. That’s part of it, but they bathe a lot in the pond over there too. They don’t smell nasty at all, am I right? Bury your head in one of them,” Rinnew said, and Emmymephy complied.

“I say, you’re right! They don’t smell like wild rabbits in the least!”

In fact, they smelled kind of sweet, like flowers. Just how perfect were the rabbits? You couldn’t get much better than having a fluffy fur coat and smelling nice. But the extent of their perfection was actually, in a way, worrying.

“Won’t there be thieves trying to steal them?”

“Yeah, that is worrying. But apparently, the rabbits here can only survive inside the dungeon.”

A rabbit beastkin had translated a warning from the rabbits: They would struggle hard if someone tried to take them outside, and if that someone took them outside anyway they would die.

“So yeah, we’re managing things kinda strictly here. Most of the funds earned from the veggie sticks goes to our defense fund.”

“Oh, interesting.”

The Narikin Company was apparently selling the veggie sticks at a very reasonable price, prioritizing getting the product to customers over profits.

“By the way, there’s a rabbit beastkin that can speak with rabbits here?”

“What, you don’t know her? I thought Ichigo was pretty famous by now.”

Ichigo. That was the name of the idol that Emmymephy was here for.

“That’s her! I came here to see Ichigo reveal her new song and perform it live!”

“Yeah, I kinda figured.”

“I learned to phalanx and tag team on the way here,” Emmymephy said while puffing out her nonexistent chest with pride.

“Oh yeah? Does that mean you can handle raid events too?”

“Raid events? I say, what are those?”

Yet more idol terminology, it seemed. Emmymephy innocently asked Rinnew for details, and that was when it happened. The dungeon was filled with the shrill sound of warning bells.

# Royal Audience Room’s Perspective

There was a pure white room. Inside, two regal sofas could be found, fit for nobility. One was white, and one was black. They did not face each other. They were lined up next to each other, facing the same direction, as if they were the seats to a theater play.

Two magic circles appeared at the same time, and from each stepped a person. One was a beautiful woman known as the Ivory Goddess. The other was a mature man known as the Great Demon King.

Haku Laverio and Dungeon Core Number 6. The two of them were known for their vicious dog and fox rivalry. What would happen now that they were alone in the same room?

“I would say it’s been a while, but I suppose we just met at the gathering, hm?”

“Indeed. Always a pleasure, Core 6.”

...And the answer proved to be a surprisingly peaceful conversation.

The room had been prepared specially for the two Dungeon Cores in question so that they could observe the ensuing Dungeon Battle. It was a magical space cut off from the rest of the world, so high level Cores such as Haku and Core 6 could observe peacefully without helping either team.

Core 6 saw the sofas and sat on the black one without a moment of hesitation. Haku did the same with the white sofa.

“Today will be a fun day, don’t you think, Core 6?”

“Ah, yes. I have been looking forward to this. It’s time to see how your secret weapon uses my Core 666.”

“Secret weapon? I don’t believe I’ve been hiding Rokuko particularly much.”

“Heh. I am referring to the girl’s Dungeon Master. You say you aren’t hiding him, but there you go using your cute little sister to cover his existence up, you old fox.”

“My my my. I think I shall say the same to you. I wanted to see Core 666’s Master, but you aren’t even letting him participate.”

“You’ll have to forgive me for that. He’s being trained for the Dance Party that’s held once every four years. The timing here was bad.”

“Oh yes, that tournament of yours. Understandable, then.”

The two of them continued their friendly conversation. Anyone who knew them would likely be listening with dropped jaws and a hefty dose of disbelief. Usually they spoke in public with frigid hostility, but now there was not even a trace of that.

“How are things looking on your end? Core 564 is a buffoon, but he is reasonably strong nonetheless.”

“I couldn’t tell you. I haven’t involved myself that closely with this battle. Though he did say he had a fifty percent chance of winning.”

“By he, you mean her Master?”

“Indeed. Keima.”

“...What do you think his actual chances are, then?”

“I would say fifty percent. I believe him when he says it.”

“Interesting. I see that you trust him greatly,” Core 6 said, and Haku let out a refined giggle. Hearing that, Core 6 wrinkled his eyes in a smile.

And that was when another magic circle appeared. It was different from the ones that had summoned the two Cores. It was more detailed and complex, made of several layers of interlocking parts, and it was for summoning extradimensional beings.

Through it appeared Father. He had dark skin, black hair, and golden eyes. He was wrapped in dark blue robes and the top half of his face was hidden by a mask. His mouth, which was unhidden, wore his usual faint smile.

“Father,” both Haku and Core 6 said at the same time.

“Heya, you two. Oh, no need to stand. We’re family, aren’t we? No need for being all stiff and formal.”

Under normal circumstances, Cores only got to see Father once a year, and that was through a monitor. Meeting him in person—though not necessarily his true form—was like meeting a god, and his aura was overwhelming. Even Haku and Core 6, natural-born leaders who had spent most of their lives standing on top of other people, felt the instinctive urge to kneel before him.

“I usually only see my kids through the monitor so I don’t scare them, but I think you two will be fine with this, right?”

“Absolutely, Father. This is entirely fine,” Haku said.

“Heh heh. Of course we are,” Core 6 said.

Father snapped a finger, and a sofa born from the night sky appeared, facing the white and black sofa. Within its black texture were twinkly white stars, and looking at it made one feel as if they were getting sucked inside. If he said he had made it by ripping out the fabric of the cosmos, anyone would believe him. Father sat down on the starry sky.

“That is a splendid chair.”

“You think so, Core 6? Thanks. I can give it to you after this is over if you want. Do you want one too, Haku?”

“Oh my. You wouldn’t mind?”

“No need to be reserved. It’s the least I can do, considering you offered up that full-featured massage chair Keima made.”

“I am glad to hear you liked it. In that case, I think I would like one.”

The three of them smiled at each other. There really was a sense of closeness there, just like a normal family would have.

“But Father. Are you sure you’re fine with making a room like this for us?” Core 6 asked.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Dungeon Battles are one of my few joys in life. Not to mention, I think it’d be fun for you two to analyze the battle and explain it to me as it happens.”

“Goodness, Father, there is nothing we could teach you.” Haku hurriedly replied, but Father held up a hand to interrupt.

“I’m always saying this, but I’m not as almighty as you all think I am. I have something of a talent for making things, but well... That’s about it.”

“You say ‘that’s it,’ Father, but there is nothing we can do that you can’t,” Core 6 said.

“That’s not true. I made Dungeon Cores to have lots of types and specialties to open up options for them. I’m sure some of you can do things I can’t. If you can’t do something yourself, leave it to someone who can—hah, though that’s just something someone told me.” Father spread his arms and smiled. Someone told him that? Who in the world could face Father and say something like that, Haku wondered.

“Well, it’s about time to start. How should we signal the start? I kind of want to pop out at the end and surprise everyone this time.”

“Oh my, but your involvement became obvious the moment you prepared this room. Would showing up to start the battle truly make a difference now?”

“Hold it, Haku. That Dungeon Master of yours might have noticed, but it doesn’t look like Core 564 realized the significance of this at all. We should respect Father’s wishes and keep his presence a secret for now. Knowing that a god is watching will change how anyone fights—there is no need for us to show mercy to a fool who could not understand the simple reality presented to him.”

“Fair point, Core 6. In that case, Father, who would you like to announce the start? Do you have any preferences?” Haku asked, saying a generic “who” to include Keima and the others as possible candidates. Though Haku and Core 6 would be the best choices since neither of them were involved in the fight.

“Hm? Hmm... Okay, I think I’ll ask you to take care of it, Core 6.” Father’s decision was founded on the fact that Core 6 had members of his faction on both sides of the fight.

“...Well there you have it, Core 6. This is a big responsibility. Don’t mess it up.”

“That much is obvious. But overdramatizing it will hint to Father’s presence, so I will approach it more naturally. Give me a hand.”

“If you insist.”

And that finished the pregame meeting. Core 6 signaled toward Father with his eyes.

“It’s not connected yet, but here’s a one-way look at them,” Father said before bringing up monitors directly in front of Haku and Core 6. Each monitor showed the face of one of the Dungeon Cores participating in the Dungeon Battle. The same footage was shown on both sides of the monitor.

“Still, you two really are close, huh? I think it would be nice if you always acted this friendly. Though, of course, I won’t say anything in public since I know you’re doing this to achieve some goal.”

“I appreciate your understanding.”

“That reminds me, Haku. Has your investigation of the incident yielded any results yet?”

“I sent a Hero to sniff around, but no changes on that front yet. And in any case, now isn’t the time for that. Goodness, Core 6, you certainly are a busybody. Let’s just enjoy the Dungeon Battle for now, hm? I avoided asking Keima for details all to make this day that much sweeter.”

“Very well then. I’ll get to announcing the start in that case. Father, are you ready?”

“Yep, yep. Let’s get this show on the road. Three, two...” Once Father finished counting down, a monitor showing Haku and Core 6 sitting in the royal audience room appeared before the Dungeon Battle participants. Everyone could see the sparks flying from their narrowed eyes as they lamented being stuck together. They wore smiles, but all the calm friendliness from before was gone—they were rival leaders of warring factions and nothing more.

“Now then. I see everyone is ready now.”

“Your grace! I will offer up this victory to you, the Great Demon King!”

“N-Nuh-uh! I’m gonna send you packing!”

“Heh heh. Good to see you both so motivated. Do not disappoint me, Core 564.”

“Sir!”

The battle was being fought between Core 564 and Core 629. The victory condition of “touch the opposing Core” applied only to them. Alternatively, the battle would end the moment either of them surrendered.

Although last year’s battle had been a ferocious triple threat fight, it had ended quickly after a day since all participants had been Cores from the 600 batch, and they had made new dungeons for the fight. This time, however, there would be a Core from the 500 batch participating. Core 6 wondered how many days the fight would last.

“Keima,” Haku began. “Feel free to work Core 666 to the literal death if it means winning, okay?”

“Err... I dunno about that. I’ll, uh, consider it?”

“What are you saying, Core 89? Or Haku, rather. Core 666, I give you my full permission to stab Core 695 in the back during the Dungeon Battle.”

“A surprise attack! That sounds just delightful, Grandfather. But it seems that Rokuko won’t be fighting on the front lines. Very unfortunate.”

“Is that so? Hmph, so she follows the cowardly strategies that the Traitor loves so much. I simply do not see the appeal.”

“I’m not surprised you don’t understand how lovely my cute little Rokuko is. I can’t say I would expect anyone who loves a brutish girl like Core 666 to have good taste.”

“Oh? I am willing to fight here and now, if you wish.”

“Give it your best shot... Or I would like to say that, but we’re not the ones fighting today. Let’s get this started already.”

“Tch. A fair point. No point waiting any longer... BEGIN!”

And so, the Dungeon Battle between Core 564 and the Union of the 600 Batch began.

# Core 564’s Perspective

“No point waiting any longer... BEGIN!” Core 6 declared, and immediately a gate leading to the enemy dungeon opened.

“Onwards!” At once Core 564 sent forth his rigorously trained and carefully selected squadron of twenty Skeletons, ten Gargoyles, and three Succubi. That alone would be overkill for the puny rabbit, but Core 666 was involved in the fight. With this formation, the Skeletons would stall for time while the Gargoyles supported with magic and the Succubi used {Charm}... or they would if there were any targets. {Charm} naturally wouldn’t work on Core 666, so they might end up just attacking with their weapons instead.

In any case, given that a Core from the Demon King faction was on the other side as well, Core 564 expected a Dungeon Battle consisting of them sending out their finest troops to clash in battle. However, there were no monsters on the other side of the gate. There wasn’t even a single rabbit.

“Hrm? What is the meaning of this...? Did they flee in fear of me?” Core 564 wondered aloud, but it didn’t make sense. He hadn’t left the personal room of his mansion-styled dungeon yet.

He looked through the monitor for signs of the enemy. They were in a hallway, and he advanced his troops while cautiously looking for traps.

“Hrm, a staircase up, I see... Perhaps they are at the top?” He advanced a Gargoyle up the stairs cautiously.

At the top, there was an open room. It wasn’t outside the dungeon despite the sky. It was an environment room made of grassy plains, and it was filled with stands, a stage, and a bunch of humans wearing identical coat-things.

“Hrm?! Is this a human farm?!” he thought, and seconds later his Gargoyle was destroyed by a single strike launched by a human. It was as if the human had been trained to fight off invaders. Or rather... That was undoubtedly the case. They had all been trained for this day.

“Gahaha! That dumb rabbit had a whole human farm?! No, no, these are human adventurers! I’ll praise him for gathering humans this strong.”

Regardless, the humans would fall easily to his Succubi. And not only would they fall, they would join Core 564’s army. He determined that the enemy didn’t know much about how he fought.

“Send twenty more Gargoyles... no, forty! It would be no fun at all if the Succubi ended this immediately, so advance slowly! Heheh, the Great Demon King is watching us. We need to let the 600 batch Cores show at least some resistance before losing... Heh, I’m such a kind guy.”

The humans would go from overjoyed to terrified after they finished off the Gargoyles and Succubi appeared. Core 564 grinned at the thought of offering up such an amusing sight to Core 6.

That said, Core 666 was nowhere to be seen. Where had she gone?

“Core 564, there are invaders in our dungeon.”

“Hm?”

Not long after he sent forty Gargoyles through the portal, invaders entered his dungeon as if exchanging places with them. He opened his monitor.

It was Core 666. The young girl was wrapped in a crimson dress that matched her hair, and she gracefully passed the mansion’s gate on her way to the front door. In her hand was a Magic Blade—her true body.

“So you’ve come, Core 666! I admire the guts it takes to charge into my mansion solo! Here, have a warm welcome!”

Core 564’s monsters, all things like Skeletons and Ghosts similar to demons, surrounded Core 666. But she utterly destroyed them. All Aidy had to do was swing her blade casually while walking, mowing them down like she was shaving ice on water. It wasn’t even on the level of proper swordplay—she was just mopping up trash in her way. And in reality, that was the case.

“Heheh, so small fries won’t be enough, huh? Summoner Succubus squad, send forth Gargoyles!”

For maximum security, the Summoner Succubus squadron cast used {Summon Gargoyle} from within Core 564’s dungeon and ordered the monsters to battle. And by the way, it was more DP efficient to buy mana potions than it was to summon Gargoyles directly from the catalog. In the long-term, it was more efficient to teach Succubi the {Summon Gargoyle} spell and have them use it. It would take many years for them to pay for the cost of the scroll, but Core 564 had realized the cost-efficiency thanks to more than a century of experience. It was top-secret information (to him; anyone could figure it out if they ran some simple calculations) and the Summoner Succubus squadron was the result.

Naturally, even Gargoyles would barely serve to slow Core 666 down. Any assistant instructor in Demon King style would be at least that strong. However, to advance past the level of assistant instructor, one had to develop a body that didn’t tire on top of not needing food or air. It followed, then, that as Core 666 was still an assistant instructor, she would get tired. That was a weak point. She could cut down hordes of Skeletons at once, but she had to face each Gargoyle individually, and that would build up exhaustion.

“Heh heh heh. I will face you once you’ve had your fill of my warmest welcome and become exhausted. Do not call this cowardice! Waiting at the end of a dungeon for a challenge is the Demon King faction’s way! This is strength!”

As an aside, the true strongest members of the Demon King faction would at times heal their enemy before the fight, but Core 564 didn’t have the leeway for that. He was dealing with Core 666, a swordswoman of equal rank as him. Any small change could make the difference between victory and defeat.

...A Hero from another world might observe this and say “What, no heal point? This must just be a mid-boss,” but no matter.

“Core 564. The Succubi are about to reach the humans.”

“Oh, perfect! Time to enjoy the show.”

No doubt the foolish humans were rejoicing over having defeated the Gargoyles. Core 564 changed screens on his monitor to see the Succubi knock them down into the pit of despair.

# Emmymephy’s Perspective

“I say, so that was a raid event?” Emmymephy asked Rinnew while looking at the Skeleton and Gargoyle rubble in front of her.

“Yup. We didn’t even have to use wotagei this time, though. I figure there’s probably gonna be another wave coming soon. You wanna join in this time?”

“As I am a princess, I shall leave the fighting to my imperial guards.” Interesting that she would mention using wotagei for fighting. I wonder what that means? Emmymephy thought while stroking the trembling rabbit in her arms, and indeed more enemies appeared.

“Rinnew! Forty gargoyles, coming up!”

“Roger that! Take a look, Mephy. This is the true form of wotagei... C’mon, lads! Phalanx!”

“ROGER!” roared the adventurers wearing happi coats while stomping forward to the front lines and standing next to each other. Then, they readied their shields and spears. Their formation was perfect. For some reason, there were several members of the imperial guard mixed in.

“I want these feelings to reach you you YOOOU!”

“YOU YOU YOOOU!”

Those in the phalanx stabbed their spears to the rhythm of “A Loving Rabbit’s Always Straightforward.” They were stabbing crazy fast, but not a single one of them hit any of their allies. Meanwhile, they blocked the attacks of the enemies with their shields, and rhythmically crushed all forty gargoyles. All in all, they were the very image of a well-trained ace fighter squadron.

“...S-So this is wotagei’s true form...! I-It’s so cool! And I say, they’re encouraged enough that they could join the imperial army without any further training!”

“Heh, I know, right? I forget who first brought it up, but this phalanx formation is pretty convenient. You just have to swap out the fans for shields and the glow sticks for spears to make it work in fighting a war!”

Those things all had pretty different weights, but Rinnew was adamant that they could compensate for that with ‘the power of the chosen furries.’ Ah yes, that makes perfect sense, Emmymephy agreed without thinking about it for a second.

“But still, that was a pretty big wave this time... First Skeletons and Gargoyles, then forty whole Gargoyles? I don’t think there’s ever been a raid that big.”

“Perhaps the Gargoyles wanted to hear Ichigo’s new song too!”

“Nah, I don’t think so. Funny idea though, Mephy.” Rinnew patted her head. That was pretty much the pinnacle of disrespect, but Emmymephy didn’t particularly mind it.

“So, is that the end of the raid event?”

“Nah, the rabbits are still scared, and the Safe Zone’s not regenerating. Should be safe to say there’s another wave coming,” Rinnew said. She didn’t let her guard down for a second when it came to protecting the rabbits. Her eyes were sharp.

And, as expected, the door opened again. But out came not Skeletons or Gargoyles, but thicc humans overflowing with sensuality. Is that a... hunk wearing a swimsuit? Wait, no, their chests are covered so they’re probably babes, I guess? Emmymephy wondered with a tilt of her head.

“Be careful, everyone! They’re Succubi!” echoed a loud voice.

Succubi—dangerous enemies that used {Charm} to control their enemies. Weak-hearted men and women would fall prisoner to their charms and end up fighting their friends. There was no greater enemy to an army.

Since Emmymephy had anti-charm equipment equipped—a Lionheart Bracelet—she was hardly affected at all beyond seeing babes walking. But anti-charm equipment was rare and valuable, so much so that the average adventure almost certainly wouldn’t have any themselves.

“I say, this is bad! Everyone, watch out for friendly fire... Wait, whaaat?!” Emmymephy launched into a warning, but the loud voice that had echoed sent everyone in the front row standing straight.

“You idiots! Ichigo’s the only girl for me!”

“Hmph! I won’t forget that you’re our enemy just because you dressed up as rabbits!”

“A bunny girl? Haha, real rabbits are way cuter than you could ever be! Come back when you’re a tiny fluff ball!”

“G-Graaah! H-Holy shit, this girl is exactly my type! Is it just me or does she kinda look like the imperial princess?”

“C’mon man, snap out of it! How can you not see that she has huge tits? You hate those!”

“Oh, you’re right! What was I thinking?”

...Some of them responded a bit suspiciously, but most of them seemed fine.

There were three ways to resist {Charm} without magic items: One, have passive charm resistance... in other words, have a strong heart. Two, be so deeply in love with something else that lust cannot overtake it. Three, close your eyes and ears to block off the Succubus’s manipulation.

The adventurers here had powered through using the second option—they had used their love for rabbits and their dedication as fans to overcome the {Charm}. And thus individuals overflowing with love showed no mercy to their enemies. The Succubi, with their {Charm} having been blocked, met the same fate as the Gargoyles.

“Thank you, everyooone! The rabbits are super happy too! Keep up the good wooork!” rang out the same loud voice from before, over by the performance area where the stage was. The adventurers and imperial guards in the front row let out a roaring battle cry in response.

“Wait, was that Ichigo’s voice?! Goodness! Is that the red-haired rabbit beastkin surrounded by rabbits and waving her hand here?!”

“That’s right! It’s Ichigo, our idol and the representative of the rabbits!”

“KYAAAH! I say, it’s the real deal Ichigoooo!” Emmymephy squealed and bounced while waving her hand along with the other adventurers.

As an aside, her voice was so loud due to using a sound amplifying magic tool provided by the Narikin Company. It was quite useful and Emmymephy wanted to use one too. She decided to buy one later.

“And actually, I say, do you all truly love rabbits that much?”

“Of course!”

“Heck, I’m going broke with debt to keep coming here.”

“Nothing can defeat fluffiness!”

The furries all gave thumbs up.

“You all love Ichigo that much?”

“Of course we do...?”

“It’s the duty of all Ichigo fans to protect the rabbits she loves so much.”

“Really, would you not put your life on the line for Ichigo, princess?”

Ichigo’s fans all responded with clear faces free of any doubt. Some of them were, indeed, members of the imperial guard.

Emmymephy accepted their observations as facts without thinking too hard about it. And thus, she learned the true power of the front line fighters.

# Royal Audience Room’s Perspective

The tense atmosphere in the room had dissolved as soon as contact with both sides of the Dungeon Battle was severed.

“Did you send those adventurers, Haku? They seemed quite well organized.”

“That has more to do with Keima than me. He was somehow summoning them into the dungeon he made and training them over time. I have to say, I didn’t expect them to end up this skilled either.”

“...They certainly are something else. And on top of that, they even conquered Succubi.”

The adventurers had demolished the waves of Skeletons and Gargoyles. Their fighting was efficient and coordinated, so much so nobody would blink an eye if they were called an elite squadron of military fighters. Though their choice of chant as they swung their weapons was a bit odd.

Even better, they had easily resisted the seduction of Succubi. Normal adventurers would have been controlled by the Succubi into attacking each other.

“Are they equipped with {Charm} equipment? Like those coats they’re all wearing, perhaps.”

“No, those are just something called happi coats.” They were apparently made of cheap cotton, even. Though they were dyed with quite pretty colors.

“Perhaps they are all valiant warriors with storied histories of battle? Succubi charms have less of an effect on the old and withered,” Core 6 suggested.

“No, most of them are actually quite young, I believe.” There were some veterans mixed in, but they probably weren’t even ten percent of the total.

“All blind and deaf?”

“Nope.” They were standard adventurers with full command of their eyes and ears.

“Then perhaps the girl who brought them back to their senses in a few words is a higher level Succubus?”

“I’ve received reports that she is undoubtedly a War Rabbit.” You could exploit a loophole to defeat Succubi by letting yourself be controlled by a higher level Succubus, but they hadn’t done that here.

“...So you say, but in that case, all the adventurers would have to be stouthearted enough to defy Succubi seduction head-on.”

“It’s hard to believe, but it seems to be the truth.”

“How peculiar,” Core 6 responded with a shrug.

They glanced at the monitor and saw that Core 564 was panicking big time. He roared in surprise and anger when his proud squadron of Succubi was easily massacred by the adventurers. Core 6 was exceedingly curious about how one could train a group of adventurers into such a mentally and physically powerful squadron of warriors in just two months at best, but he doubted he would get an answer even if he asked.

“Heh. Your secret weapon is something else, huh? That’s one hell of a Dungeon Master.”

“To be honest, I’m just as surprised as you are.”

Not only was the squadron protecting the singular entrance to the dungeon, Keima had successfully made them fight only the monsters invading in the dungeon. Haku hadn’t ordered them to do that, and nobody had revealed the truth about dungeons to them. They were protecting the dungeon out of their own volition. That, too, was Keima’s accomplishment.

On the other hand, Core 666 was doing some killer work in Core 564’s mansion dungeon. She entered the dungeon through the dimensional gate, then busted through the normal gate to get into the garden, where she was easily chopping down Gargoyles with her true body, the flame Magic Blade. She had so much leeway that she even had the time to fake breathing hard and pretend to wipe nonexistent sweat off her forehead. The fact that she was acting was obvious to Core 6 and Haku, but perhaps Core 564 would be so distracted by his attacking force being destroyed that he wouldn’t even notice?

Core 666 left the Gargoyle rubble in the garden and boldly invaded the mansion from the front door. Skeletons and Gargoyles were there to fight her off, but they couldn’t even touch her. Core 666 didn’t even have to stop her obviously fake acting.

“Core 666 seems to be giving it her all too, hmm?” Haku observed.

“Quite. Core 666 has reached the level of an instructor after all, albeit through a disqualifying back channel.”

“Instructor? Ahhh, of Demon King style. That requires one to obtain a tireless body even after learning to human morph, if I recall.”

“Correct. Core 666 had that insufferable Master brat of hers order her to not feel any exhaustion. She’ll be stuck as an assistant instructor until she masters the technique herself, but in the meanwhile it’s quite an effective strategy.”

“...Ah. Using Absolute Authority, I see.” Haku let out a sigh. She found the Dungeon Master’s Absolute Authority over Cores to be despicable, but she said nothing of it. Father was right in front of them. No doubt he had deep reasoning behind the Absolute Authority.

“Hey, Haku. Do you have a second?” Father asked with a smile.

“Certainly. What is it, Father?”

“Could you ask Keima a question for me?”

“Of course, your wish is my command. What would you like me to ask?”

“Core 564’s invading force walked right past Core 666, didn’t they? I was wondering how and where he hid her.”

“Oh. She was just in the room all along,” Haku explained. And indeed Aidy had been in the room since before the gate was even summoned. But only after Core 564’s squadron had passed her by did she pop out from behind a fake wall that looked solid but was actually just an illusion. Haku concluded that they had used an [Illusory Wall (500 DP)] to hide her. It was quite impressive how she avoided that many foes walking right by.

“I’m sure there’s no need to ask. Core 666 was surely hidden behind an [Illusory Wall].”

“Mmm, it kinda feels like that’s not quite right. Could you ask anyway? For me.”

“...Very well then.” Haku connected her monitor to Keima’s, having no other choice. She couldn’t exactly turn down a request from Father.

“Keima, do you have a moment?”

“Oh? I hope this is important, Haku. I’m kinda busy watching over the Dungeon Battle,” Keima answered, talking to Haku with a casual attitude just like always. If he weren’t Rokuko’s Dungeon Master his head would be disconnected from his neck right now.

Haku contained her seething anger and asked the question Father gave her. “It’s just a simple question. I was wondering where you were hiding Core 666 and how.”

“Huh? You weren’t looking at the map or anything? She was in the gate room from the start.”

She hadn’t been looking at the map but Haku naturally knew that. She also knew how he had been hiding her, but... She glanced at Father and saw that he had written “Ask him how he hid her!” on a piece of paper, which he was holding up to her.

“Ahem. How were you hiding her?”

“...Can’t say I want to tell you for free.”

Haku glanced at Father again. This time, the paper said “I’ll cover the cost, think of anything you like.” Haku considered what a good payment would be.

“How about... I pay you with a [Lionheart Bracelet], a piece of anti-charm equipment. I have Emmymephy wearing one now.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Negotiations complete. Father went ahead and made a [Lionheart Bracelet]. It was gleaming with divine power that probably made it a powerful [Divine Lionheart Bracelet] in the end. Haku considered that she was probably paying him too high of a reward.

“So, how did you hide her?”

“Well, it’s not that complicated, really.”

“Cut to the chase,” Haku urged. She already knew what he was going to say anyway.

“Okay. I had her open her monitor, put on a visual of a wall, then make it really tall and stand behind it. Like this,” Keima said before making his monitor visible and demonstrating. A wall was displayed on it and Keima hid behind it.

“Um. You didn’t use an [Illusory Wall]?”

“Illusory... Oh, the trap. Those are pretty expensive, y’know. Ten whole futons. No need for that when a monitor’s more than enough for a Dungeon Battle like this.”

Putting aside whether 500 DP was actually a lot or not, to think that you could use the menu and the monitor like that. Haku felt as if she had been struck on the head. Now that he mentioned it, the trick really was simple, and it had the exact same effect as an [Illusory Wall].

“...V-Very interesting. Thank you.”

“No problem. Say hello to Father for me,” Keima said before ending the call.

Haku let out a sigh. “It seems he did notice you after all, Father.”

“Hahaha! Well, I expected nothing less from Keima. But maybe I should say ‘Hey! You don’t have the right to call me Father!’ or something? Not that I’m opposed to it really, but it would be pretty funny, right?”

“You may do as you see fit... Wait, Core 6? What has gotten into you?” Haku glanced to her side and saw Core 6 bending over while holding his stomach.

“Heh heh, ah, it’s nothing. You just looked so foolish when he said he hid behind the monitor. Pay me no mind.”

“...Did I make that weird of a face?” Haku pouted and rubbed her cheeks.

“Oh yes. Absolutely. Your lips and brows froze in place exactly. Heh heh heh!”

“Very well. I will attack you to the full extent of my power in our next war. It seems that it is finally time for me to lend my Magic Blade collection to the Knight’s Order...”

“Wait, wait, wait! You can’t blame this on me! Am I wrong, Father?” Core 6 hurriedly looked to Father for support.

“Ahaha! You were wrong for saying a girl looked foolish, but putting that aside... Haku, you were absolutely convinced he used an [Illusory Wall], right? I think it’d be nice if you were a bit more flexible with your thinking.”

...Father had noticed the truth without even having to ask Keima, but had Haku ask anyway so she would realize her mistake. He was smiling like a kid that had succeeded in a prank.

“Did you know? Shinobi from his world use cloth the same color of walls to cover themselves and avoid enemy detection. It’s one part of the ninja art of camouflage.”

“...Are you suggesting that Keima is a shinobi?”

“That would be fantastic! Ah, but let’s get back to watching the Dungeon Battle.”

The Dungeon Battle had at best finished the preliminary skirmishes. Only the gods knew how it would develop from there... or not, since even a god like Father was watching on excitedly, not knowing what the future held.

# Aidy’s (Core 666’s) Perspective

Hide behind the monitor until the enemies pass, then launch a counter attack... An amusing idea, as far as Aidy was concerned.

“As expected, Rokuko’s master certainly does have ideas few others would...”

One could phrase that as Keima being messed up or skilled at manipulating people, but either way it was a valuable quality to have as a Dungeon Core’s partner. After all, he and Rokuko had beaten even the legendary Haku in a Dungeon Battle performed on equal footing.

Realistically speaking, no real Dungeon Battle was ever performed on equal footing. Haku had intended for it to be a learning experience, which led to her letting her guard down, and that opening had been exploited. If she had gone all out without lowering her guard, she never would have lost to a member of the newest batch. She was Core 89, a member of the first batch, far above the 600 batch.

In other words, she lost despite her victory being guaranteed, because somewhere in her heart she was thinking “It doesn’t matter if I lose here.”

...Even during Aidy’s own dungeon battle with Rokuko, her Master had said “Let’s use all the DP on strengthening ourselves. We can just play around in this Dungeon Battle and see how it goes.” In short, he too had been thinking it didn’t matter if they lost.

But today, Aidy had no intention whatsoever of losing.

“Ahaha... Haaah, haaah, now this is certainly getting fun,” Aidy wheezed in pained exhaustion while cutting down the Gargoyles charging at her in the hallway as she advanced deeper into the mansion-themed dungeon.

In truth, she wasn’t in pain, nor was she exhausted at all. But she nonetheless breathed hard with heaving shoulders to pretend otherwise. It was wasted energy, but that didn’t matter since she felt no exhaustion. Aidy had made her Master order her with Absolute Authority to feel no fatigue in battle, nor feel the need to breathe. It may have seemed like a ridiculous order, but since Core bodies were built for that kind of thing, the order actually had incredible results.

Dungeon Cores were in truth spheres that neither needed to breathe nor felt exhaustion, and her walking body was basically just an avatar of it. Why would an avatar feel tired when the body itself didn’t? Indeed, feeling that way as a Dungeon Core was nothing but a farce. It was more unnatural to feel the need to breathe at all.

A human being given that order would soon reach their limits and die. But Aidy was a Dungeon Core. And so, she had, without any problems whatsoever, obtained a body that knew no exhaustion and didn’t need oxygen.

“Hmph!” Aidy slashed down a Gargoyle that burst out of a room. She then flipped back her crimson hair and took a deep breath—pretending to be tired.

Why was she bothering with that? One, to draw out more of the enemy forces. And two, to draw out Core 564 himself, if possible.

Aidy knew how things worked. The victory condition for this Dungeon Battle was touching the Dungeon Core. That didn’t include touching the avatars. But killing the avatar removed their enemy, which ultimately would lead to victory. Aidy had realized this after Keima and Rokuko pointed it out to her at their Dungeon Battle last year.

On the other hand, Aidy’s death wouldn’t lead to a loss. Of course, it would be a loss for her personally, but her team wouldn’t lose. Aidy naturally didn’t want to die, but she was in a pretty pleasant position when she could die without compromising victory.

“My my, what a cruel man Rokuko’s Master is. This is him practically declaring that he does not care if I die,” she said while pointing her sword at a Succubus who was hiding in the shadows of furniture while trying to summon more Gargoyles. She blocked all exits with her body and blade. The Succubus looked at her with a {Charming} gaze. Her desperate resistance was met with a friendly smile from Aidy.

Had the {Charm} worked? The Succubus sighed in relief, which was the last thing she did. A merciless blade fell upon her, slicing her body in half. The Succubus collapsed.

“Aaah, I was charmed and killed her without thinking. I just can’t help but want to kill the ones I love,” Aidy declared, not forgetting to pretend to have been charmed.

Indeed. She was pretending. {Charm} would never work on Aidy. After all, she had been ordered not to be affected by status ailments. No psychological status effects would work on her at all. Poisonous substances wouldn’t be effective either since they would be removed by her Core functions. She was exploiting her Core nature and her Master’s Absolute Authority to their fullest extent, unlocking as much of her latent power as possible.

The only status ailment that could impact her at all was being blindfolded from the outside. Or, for example, walking into a room with a [Darkness] trap like she just had.

When Aidy opened the door to a new room, the insides were shrouded in blackness. It was unnaturally dark for a room with a door open. One could imagine that even if the entire room were destroyed, a black cube of [Darkness] would remain behind. It was a wall of darkness that even seemed a bit tangible. “Hm. This looks quite interesting, like space itself has been ripped apart.”

She couldn’t hear any breathing inside the room, but she could feel hostility. There were probably undead monsters in there, or automaton creatures like Gargoyles. No doubt in addition to other traps as well.

Nonetheless, Aidy took a step into the [Darkness] without a moment’s hesitation. Immediately an arrow launched toward her. The [Darkness] trap prevented enemies from seeing her just like she couldn’t see them. But all they had to do was attack the second prey walked in, regardless of whether they had a visual of them or not.

All that said, Aidy still swiped the arrow down and plunged into the darkness as if she were dancing. She stepped across the floor without tripping any traps, swinging her blade to kill her enemies one by one.

“My my, there you are. I didn’t notice you at all. Thank goodness I happened to bump into you.”

That was a lie. Aidy had seen all of the Skeletons and Gargoyles targeting her in the darkness quite easily, the reason being that Aidy was in fact a Magic Blade-type Dungeon Core. Some Magic Blades had eyes on them, but Aidy didn’t.

In other words, she didn’t need to use her eyes to see. If ordered to see through darkness no matter what, she could. Whether she wanted to or not.

Aidy couldn’t help but smile at the ineffectual [Darkness] surrounding her. “Ahaha. Rokuko’s Master is something else, but he’s no better than my own Master. Perhaps I should give him a reward when I return home?”

Aidy and her Master were abusing the Absolute Authority system as much as they could to reap massive benefits. She knew no exhaustion, she didn’t need to breathe, she was unaffected by status elements, and she could see through darkness while massacring her enemies. She couldn’t be stopped. She was a warrior that never stopped killing.

That was how far a Dungeon Core could go with Absolute Authority. It was the exact opposite approach that Keima and Rokuko followed—with them having abandoned it entirely—and the result was a completely different fighting style. Aidy and her Master were more vicious and aggressive.

Though all that said, when she had proudly explained all this to Keima, he’d just casually worked it into his strategy by sending her out on the frontlines while his forces took care of everything else. That in itself was more than amusing, so it had put Aidy in a good mood.

# Keima’s Perspective

Alright, we won the opening. We dominated them, to be honest. They fell right into our trap for some reason.

The Succubi bit surprised me too. I thought the imperial guard would resist their {Charm}, but I didn’t expect the adventurers to fight through it too. I had planned for some casualties but we ended up getting through it with none. Sometimes it feels good to be wrong. Like really, I figured some of the stronger adventurers would have backup plans for {Charm}, but I didn’t expect all of them to resist it.

To think their love for rabbits and Ichigo the idol would be enough... What a bunch of sweethearts, eh? Oh, and what would I have done if they all got charmed? Don’t worry, losing a single floor of the dungeon wouldn’t be a huge deal. Though I could also have Ichigo turn into a Rabbit Succubus to overwrite the {Charm}. Succuma is not planned to appear. Like hell I would let that happen.

Anyway, that’s that for the defensive side. Onto the offensive side.

...It felt like there were oddly few invaders entering the dungeon, but apparently Aidy was going out of her way to murder the summoners summoning the Gargoyles. It helped that they were overall small in numbers, just like Aidy predicted they would be.

“And thus, Rokuko’s Master, I have eliminated all enemies I have found,” Aidy reported through the menu.

“Roger that. Actually, why isn’t he putting the precious summoners in safe areas? Why’s he sending them out to fight? Is he an idiot?”

“Oh my. Nowhere in a dungeon is truly safe. Where would you suggest putting them?”

“...Wait, are you being serious?” I said, then glanced at Mikan, the rabbit-type Dungeon Core next to me. He answered while rubbing his furry chin.

“...The inside of the Dungeon Core is, um, super safe, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.” Whew. I’m not the weird one here.

“...Ahhh, I see. The inside of a Dungeon Core certainly is a safe area. With your and Rokuko’s style of fighting, in any case.”

“I’m pretty sure this is just the normal way to think about it, but alright.” Maybe those in the Demon King faction don’t consider the inside of their own Core to be safe?

“The extradimensional space within a Dungeon Core is for storing your collection of treasures.”

“Ah, so we just have different uses for it.” Makes sense, honestly. There couldn’t be a better treasure room than a Dungeon Core. Nobody can go inside without permission, after all.

“Why would one put their precious belongings outside? They will just get stolen.”

“Yeah, I see where you’re coming from. Guess I should expect that much from the Demon King faction... So you don’t consider Succubi to be important, then?”

“Monsters are to be used as pawns and abandoned, no?”

In other words, they weren’t worthy of entering the Dungeon Core, and that was why Core 564 just placed them in his dungeon normally. That feels like a pretty big waste since he went out of his way to teach them {Summon Gargoyle}. Is he worried about someone being able to trace the Gargoyles back to where they came from? Nah, he could just place them in empty rooms and have them move from there... Eh, whatever. Pointing out flaws in my enemy’s strategy isn’t gonna earn me any points.

“Anyway, have you got a read on where his Dungeon Core might be?”

“Well. I suppose it’ll be at the furthest end of his dungeon—either the top floor, or the basement. And by ‘basement,’ I of course mean an underground labyrinth, which would prove a little troublesome. The underground labyrinth of a 500 batch Core will no doubt be fairly complex. I expect there to be at least ten entire floors.”

Huh...? It took me a minute to digest what Aidy had just said.

“Hold on a second. Ten floors? That’s it?”

“What do you mean by ‘that’s it,’ Rokuko’s Master? Considering the traps and complex layouts, conquering it will take several days, no doubt. And if our dungeon is conquered in the meantime, that will signify our loss.”

“Oh, I think I got the wrong idea from the dungeon being so shallow. That definitely will be a problem if the floors are so wide they take that long to conquer.”

“Wait, shallow?”

Yeah. Shallow. Why do I get the feeling that there’s a gap in understanding between Aidy and I?

“I mean, what, how could ten floors be deep? The [Ivory Beach] I made last year was ten floors itself.”

“...I suppose it was. However, it had only a single path and was quite easy to advance through. These floors will be as large as the dungeon my Master and I made... Er, I suppose you and Rokuko did, ahem, conquer that dungeon too, all the way to the end. In... In a single day.”

“Uh-huh. We sure did,” Rokuko answered proudly in my place. Yeah, the dungeon itself was pretty easy to conquer. The problem was that there was no Dungeon Core at the end, with Aidy having taken it elsewhere.

“...Rokuko. Supposing that we are facing ten floors here, how many days will it take to conquer?”

“With Keima here... A single day! Ten floors is nothing!”

“My, what a reliable ally he is. And a fearsome foe.”

Uhhhh, come on, it might take me two days. Aidy’s five floors took a day, after all.

“Uh, anyway. Is it just me or does the Demon King faction not really put a lot of effort into their dungeons?”

“...You wouldn’t be wrong to say so. Most of our dungeons end up as mansions or castles. The only thing left to do after that is to expand the basement underground. And in any case, if there’s too many floors in the dungeon, how will you ever get the opportunity to fight the invaders?”

Okay then. So basically, they’re muscleheads.

“By the way, Aidy. Did you finish conquering the first floor?”

“I’ve investigated every room I’ve found. There are staircases leading both down and up, but I suppose they’re on your map already?”

“Yep, they are, thanks to you. Perfect. Now, go ahead and set the mansion on fire. You can probably break up the nearby furniture and light the wood on fire.”

“...Pardon me?”

“Huh?”

“I must have misheard. It sounded entirely like you just told me to light the mansion on fire.”

“That’s because I did.”

“...Excuse me, Rokuko’s Master. Are you insane?” Aidy asked, worried that I had some screws loose.

“Well, I’m not sure if dungeons can actually burn, but we can find out together.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“I’m sane. This is partially just to spite him, but the smoke’s also going to weaken any Succubi still in the mansion, and the flow of the smoke will make it easier to find the way up to the next floor. You don’t need to breathe and you can see without using your eyes, so it won’t cause us any problems. Is it not a win-win?” I explained the merits of setting the mansion on fire, and Aidy finally agreed with my reasoning.

“Ah, so you are sane. I thought for certain you were suggesting we burn the entire mansion to the ground.”

“Well, that’s the idea. It sure will be easier to find the Dungeon Core if the whole mansion burns down!”

“You certainly do come up with the strangest ideas, Rokuko’s Master.”

I’ll send over some Gargoyles to help with {Fireballs}. Time to burn the place to the ground. This is like using fire arrows to strategically burn down defenses and the like. Why yes, I do feel like Zhuge Liang.

I went ahead and gave further instructions to aid in the conquering. “Hey, Mikan. Could you summon some locusts to speed search the basement floors?”

“Sure thing. But locusts die in no time. I think squirrels would be a lot better, just saying!”

“How much do those two cost for you, DP-wise?”

“Both one DP each!”

Wowee. Guess squirrels will be better then. I used mice in that fight I had with Haku, so sure.

“Alright, go ahead and summon a hundred squirrels then.”

“A hundred?! I can’t move that many at once!”

“There’s a trick to it. Niku, Ichika, give him a hand. Mikan, make your menu visible so the two of them can help. Also, I’ll probably ask you to summon more depending on how things go with them.”

“A-Alrighty then...”

Niku and Ichika are pretty used to controlling hordes of enemies by now, this should be fine.

“Keima, Keima!” Rokuko butted in. “Do you need me to do anything?”

“You can, uh... Keep an eye on the number of squirrels and ask Mikan to summon more if you think we need them.”

“Okay! Well, Mikan. Go ahead and summon an extra hundred.”

“Wait, already?” I asked.

“I haven’t even summoned the first hundred yet!”

“We’ll need them anyway, so you might as well summon them now.”

“Guuuh, all the DP I saved up is draining awaaay...”

“You have tons of DP from all the idol shows lately. I already double-checked.”

Well, there are ten floors after all. I’ll leave this to Rokuko.

I leaned back and went back to watching over the Dungeon Battle.

# Royal Audience Room’s Perspective

Core 666 cut off her call with Keima. It seemed like she would be going to the staircases next, but she didn’t.

“Oh? It looks like Core 666 is starting something.”

“Oh my, so she is. I wonder what she’s planning?”

“Seems like your little sister’s Dungeon Master gave her instructions of some sort.”

Core 666 grabbed some nearby furniture—dressers and bookshelves made of wood—and brought them to the staircases before breaking them with her sword. She slash, slash, slashed away, turning the furniture into an unrecognizable pile of wood.

“I truly do wonder what she is doing...”

“You think there’s a point to this? Seems to me that she just wants to spite Core 564.”

Core 666 pushed the pile of wood rubble closer to the staircase, then thrust her true body—a flame Magic Blade—into it, setting it all on fire.

“.........” Haku was speechless.

“...Wh-What in the world, Core 666?”

Smoke began to rise from the burning pile of wood. Core 666 grabbed a curtain from the same nearby room and tossed it in, causing the flames to flare up. There was now a huge, roaring bonfire in the middle of the mansion.

“Ahaha, this wood truly burns bright.” Core 666 tossed more wood into the fire while giggling to herself.

The wall of flames rose, burning the ceiling. At that point, it was clear what Core 666... no, what Keima was planning.

“I-Impossible... They plan on burning the mansion?! Are they insane?!”

“Ahahaha! That’s Keima for you! He has the craziest ideas!”

“...Most people wouldn’t execute this strategy even if they thought of it, would they? Of course they wouldn’t.”

Core 6 was shocked, Father was rolling with laughter, and Haku was just exasperated. But either way, the fire attack was extremely effective. After all, the mansion was in fact flammable. It was strengthened due to being a dungeon, and Core 564 could repair it with DP, but it wasn’t unbreakable. And while it was hard to burn, it wasn’t impossible. Replacing the burnt and broken parts just made the dungeon look like it was unharmed. New materials were put in place with DP while the wreckage remained wreckage.

Consider, for example, the wooden pillars. The wood flooring, the ceiling, the wooden staircases. If broken, they turned into literal wreckage, wooden materials and nothing more. They ceased being part of the dungeon once they were detached from the mansion, and they stopped earning the dungeon’s protection.

It burned easily. It burned like crazy. Core 666 destroyed the walls, sliced down the pillars, and set fire to it all. The destroyed walls regenerated, as did the pillars. But they were broken again, set alight and fed to the roaring flames.

She tried wrecking the only staircase leading to the second floor to add to the flames. If the Dungeon Core were on the top floor, then the staircase being destroyed would separate the bottom floor from it. That would lead to the bottom floor losing all dungeon protection, and it would burn normally until the entire mansion collapsed.

And so, he had no choice but to repair the staircase. But Core 666 casually destroyed it again, setting it on fire. Core 564 couldn’t let his mansion burn. So he had to repair the staircase again. Core 564 repaired the staircase, Core 666 demolished it, then set the rubble on fire.

Core 666 noticed that the staircase was being repaired faster than anything else, and started prioritizing its destruction. Repairs, destruction, fire. Repairs, destruction, fire—and so, a loop of endless fire was established.

“Oh my. This is quite nice. Somehow I am having the time of my life here. If only Rokuko had joined me.”

Incidentally, if the Core was underground, then the staircase being destroyed would lead to floor two and above losing its protection against the fire. If Core 564 wanted to protect his mansion, he needed to defend the staircase with his life. It would continue until he abandoned the mansion or ran out of DP.

As a flame Magic Blade, fire was quite pleasant for Core 666 to be around. Her dance would continue no matter how great the flames became.

A mansion-type dungeon, Core 666, and fire tactics. Everything had come together to work quite nicely.

“...This just gets worse the more I think about it!” Haku groaned.

“That Dungeon Master must be a demon. He cannot be a human,” Core 6 said. Despite the fact that Core 564 was supposed to be the demon, judging by his actions, Keima was much more of one than he was.

Gargoyles came to eliminate Core 666, or perhaps put out the fires, but...

“Tralalaa.”

...They were killed by a humming little girl. Naturally, Gargoyles posed no threat whatsoever to Core 666. Core 564 was no doubt in a huge panic.

“Okay, we just finished talking to Keima, so let’s go give Core 564 an interview next! Core 6!”

“Sir! As you wish, Father,” Core 6 said while connecting his monitor to Core 564’s.

“Gaaah! Curse you, Core 666! Stop this! STOP IITTT! GAAAAH! DON’T DESTROY MY STAIRCAAASE!”

As expected, Father was laughing on the other side of the monitor as he witnessed Core 564’s sheer panic.

“Ahem.”

“Ah! I-I didn’t see you there, Great Demon King! I apologize for subjecting you to that!” Core 564 said, straightening his back after noticing his monitor had been connected.

“It does not matter. How is the battle situation?”

“S-Sir! A-Ah, this is no problem at all! I will show my true power here!” Core 564 stammered, acting tough. Core 6 gave a grave nod in return. “A-Also, I was thinking of punishing Core 666 a bit after this. That is fine, isn’t it?”

“Do as you like.”

“Sir! Much appreciated. Now then, I’m a bit occupied, so... GAAAH! STOP BURNING IIIIT! CURSE YOU, CORE 666!”

The call ended abruptly.

“Are you sure about that? Letting him do as he wants, I mean,” Father asked, and Core 6 exhaled a bit.

“I have given up on him, Father. I said that because it no longer matters.”

“Oh my, oh my. You’re going to destroy a 500 batch Core? What a cruel Demon King you are,” Haku said with a giggle.

“Nonsense. I am not actively attempting to destroy him; I just removed him from my protection... Either way, letting him do as he pleases will change nothing. He shall serve as a stepping stone for Core 666’s growth.”

Haku put a hand over her mouth in thought. “He is a 500 batch, despite everything, so losing to a 600 batch Core is a bit unnatural. Is Core 564 weak, or is Core 666 strong? I have to wonder.”

“It’s both. I have some bias, but Core 666 is undoubtedly a genius. And her growth has accelerated rapidly ever since she acquired a Dungeon Master. Not that she would be able to beat me, of course.”

It was then that something happened in Core 629’s dungeon. It seemed that the surviving Succubi were attempting to use {Summon Gargoyle} to rebuild their forces. But naturally, all of that was displayed on the map, and Gargoyles on Core 629’s side attacked them. The Succubi and Gargoyles ran while fighting, until eventually they reached a wall.

“My, what a wonderful frontline.”

“That’s it for them.”

The Succubi, unable to do anything about the row of shields and spears in front of them and unable to {Charm} a single person, were all massacred. Core 564 likely had been giving them no instructions. Otherwise, they never would have lost their way and fled straight toward death.

But there was no helping that. After all, Core 564 had Core 666 in his mansion, doing her darndest to keep an indoor campfire going. Not to mention the two hundred enemies that had just flooded the basement.

“Why doesn’t he just entrust his subordinates with commands?”

“Considering Core 66’s fate, it is hard for those of our faction to trust even our own monsters.”

“Well... I suppose I can hardly blame them, then. It wouldn’t be my place to say anything anyway,” Haku conceded.

In any case, Core 564’s basement dungeon was being speedily conquered as well. The first floor was broken through in no time.

“Hm... Squirrels, really?” Haku said.

“A brutal strategy, to be sure. Though in my eyes it’s a lot better than flooding a dungeon with water and fish like they did last time.”

Gargoyles probably bought with DP came to stall the advancing squirrels, but the squirrels easily slipped through their feet and sped on. Magic attacks like fireballs were small and only managed to make small craters in the floors and walls for the squirrels to avoid. They were clearly being controlled by people very used to maneuvering large groups of monsters.

“Keima’s subordinates must be handling this. They’re good,” Father observed.

“...He certainly does have talented subordinates. Consider me envious,” Core 6 said.

“Right? Even I think the same. If only he would trade one of them for Misha... And they’re even better now than they were last time.”

Only a few of the squirrels ended up cornered against walls. The vast majority were, as expected, scattered throughout the dungeon and making fast progress. And in the blink of an eye, they found another staircase down. That was another floor conquered in less than an hour. The pace of their exploring was immense.

“This strategy is as brutal as ever. Core 6, how would you counter this if it were used against you?”

“Hm? I suppose with area of effect skills. Small enemies are troublesome, but size hardly matters when using magic to apply equal damage to all enemies in an area. Poison gas seems like it would be more than effective enough here.”

“Oh my, the Great Demon King himself would deign to use poison?”

“Heh. Demon Kings are the bad guys, remember? We can do whatever we want to win.”

And so, the middle of the battle also went in Keima’s... or rather, in Core 629’s favor. Which speaking of... Core 564 had said something about punishing Core 666, but what did he mean by that? If he had plans, he should go ahead and execute them soon, to keep things interesting.

# Keima’s Perspective

Alrighty then. Everything went according to plan and the staircase was now a nice campfire, but uh.

“...Errr, Aidy? Feel free to check out the upper floors whenever you’re ready.”

“Oh my, forgive me. I just ended up having so much fun burning things. Surely you understand how I feel, Rokuko.”

“Um, no, so hurry up and get to dungeon-conquering.”

Rokuko urged Aidy back to the job at hand after she ended up getting so excited by burning things that she forgot why she was actually there. The upper floors had no doubt been thoroughly smoked out by now, so there wasn’t necessarily any point to keeping her focus on the fire.

“Incidentally, how is the basement exploration going?” Aidy asked.

“Oh, right, we’re in the middle of going through the third floor. I wonder how many there actually are.”

“...Wait, you’re already on the third floor?”

Hey, don’t blame me. It’s not my fault the second floor had the exit staircase so close to the entrance. Though it was hidden behind a fake wall. One of those {Illusory Walls} that Haku was talking about, probably.

“It was hidden pretty cleverly in an otherwise nondescript hallway, so it probably would have taken a long time to find if we were going through this normally.”

“Keima’s making the squirrels run on the walls,” Rokuko noted.

“It’s common knowledge to run a hand along the rightmost wall of a labyrinth to find the way. But yeah, anyway, it’s his fault for putting both staircases so close together.” There are some things we can’t deal with, but we’re getting a grasp of the dungeon’s layout, and marking down all the loads of traps in the hallways and on the floors. “We’ll stop if we reach a Boss Room, so this is all support stuff anyway. Once we’ve found the shortest path we can just smash through with our Gargoyles... Gate, open. I summon thee, magic-wielding monster of stone. Serve me. {Summon Gargoyle}. Alright, follow Mikan’s orders.”

“Okie dokie then. I’ll put them in a closed off room and send them off to the gate.”

Incidentally, it was pretty simple for Mikan to place monsters I had summoned. It was basically the same thing as me placing them back in my own dungeon. It wasn’t impossible in the least.

“...You don’t suppose I could keep burning things for a bit, do you?” Aidy asked.

“Is it really that fun...? I kinda need you searching the mansion.”

“You can just send Gargoyles to do that. They’re made of stone and can fly, so the lack of a staircase will pose no problem to them.”

“Fine, fine... Gate, open. I summon thee, magic-wielding monster of stone. Serve me. {Summon Gargoyle} Go help explore the dungeon. Mikan, you know what to do with them.”

“Sure do!”

I summoned Gargoyles like nothing and sent them off. Yippee, sure feels good to be a living Gargoyle factory. It kinda sucks that I can’t do this chantless since I’m being watched, but still, I’m glad this is easier than using {Create Golem}. Just what I would expect from Haku’s recommended summoning spell.

“Feel free to summon Skeletons yourself, Aidy.”

“Oh, I would like to save my mana for my fight with Core 564.”

“Sure, makes sense.”

“Indeed... Oh, and those Gargoyles won’t be necessary. It seems he’s arrived.”

“Huh?” I asked, but instead of replying Aidy did a backflip through the air. A split second later a sword flew through the air where she had just been standing and lodged itself in a wall.

“CORE 666!” came a roar.

“Theeere you are, Core 564. I’m glad you’ve accepted the invitation to my dance party.”

There appeared Core 564. Yep, he’s got a goat head and I’m pretty sure he’s two full heads taller than Aidy. Looks like he’s holding another sword that’s different from the one stuck in the wall.

“Aaaah, alright. She’s drawn him out.” Can’t really blame him for being pissed at us starting a fire in his mansion. I’d be pissed too, I thought just as Rokuko pulled on my sleeve.

“Keima, we win if we beat that goat thing, right?”

“Well, it won’t be an immediate victory, but it’d be hard to lose afterwards. Maybe it’s against the rules to kill Cores? Sure would be nice if someone could tell us,” I said loudly so the Royal Audience Room could hear, but I didn’t get a reply. Maybe they weren’t watching and listening to the Master Rooms at all times? Great, now I’m kinda embarrassed.

“Uhhh... Aidy, could you try beating him half to death without actually killing him?”

“Oh my, I don’t know about that. I might not be able to win if I don’t fight with the full intent to kill,” Aidy replied while clashing blades with Core 564.

“Graaah! You annoying braaaat!”

“Truly it astounds me that you can be so smug over your batch being one earlier than mine. Ahaha.”

Yeah, seems like she’s got leeway to me. She’s acting all nonchalant without a hint of stress at all. Core 564’s definitely got more power here, but he’s so pissed that he’s easy to predict, or something. I dunno, I’m not really a fighter.

“I’M GONNA RIP OFF YOUR ARMS AND LEGS AND STICK YOU ON MY WAAAALL!”

“My my, how scary. I suppose I’ll slice off your head and mount it in my room, then.”

As one would expect from those of the Demon King faction, they were both badmouthing each other with some pretty violent threats. Aidy, that would definitely kill him. Don’t do that.

“Come forth, Bloody Ghosts!”

“Gate, open. I summon demons of bone to serve me—{Summon Skeleton}.”

Core 564 summoned red ghost-type monsters with DP while Aidy used mana to summon Skeletons. She then used her flaming Magic Blade to slice apart the Ghosts just as Core 564 blew away her troublesome Skeletons.

...Huh, I guess elemental Magic Blades can take down Ghosts too. Or maybe that’s due to its Indestructible trait?

“Um, Aidy, are you sure you don’t need us to send you any monsters?”

“No need, Rokuko. Duels are best performed one on one.”

And so, I directed my Gargoyles to search the mansion instead. Or to be specific, I had them fly through the windows to get inside.

...I mean, smoke was billowing out of the mansion windows. Who wouldn’t realize they were open? Who wouldn’t infiltrate the mansion through the windows? Oh, they got inside normally? And we have enough Gargoyles to go into all the windows? Perfect.

Oh, looks like we found Core 564’s personal bedroom. Time to investigate. There’s some Succubi, but they’re weakened from the smoke and {Charm} doesn’t work on Gargoyles. Oh, and there’s a Dungeon Core... Wait. That’s not a Dummy Core. Time to give it a tooouc—

“Grrr!” came a growl. Yeah, there goes the castling. He’s not gonna let us win that easily. But still, now we know that the Dungeon Core’s going to be in the basement.

As an aside, a Dummy Core could no longer be used in a Dungeon Battle once it was touched. It was part of the rules. And in fact, if you castled a Core with a touched Dummy Core that would count as the actual Core being touched. Be careful!

“Ngh! Gah!”

“Oh, I landed quite a nice blow there. Were you distracted by something?”

“...Curses! Curses, curses, cuuurses! How dare you enter my bedroom!”

It seemed that he had lowered his guard to castle the Core, which was really what he should have been doing in the first place. Their fight was shifting ever more in Aidy’s favor. Hey, my bad for going into your bedroom. But what do you expect to happen if you put the Dungeon Core there?

“Nooow then, shall we resume the slaughter?”

“Ngh! Cuuurses!”

I thought for a second Aidy was about to straight up kill him in there during the duel, but well.

“We shall finish this duel later! Basilisks, come forth! Curses! They’re so expensive!”

“Oh my. Poison and petrification, now those are dangerous ailments.”

Core 564 summoned three large snake creatures. Aidy fought them with her eyes closed, giving Core 564 the opportunity to run and disappear into the ether. He had probably placed himself in the basement dungeon.

Alrighty then. Now we just have to clear the basement dungeon. Yep, things sure are simple now. I like this kinda thing. Anyway, time to hurry up and finish this so I can sleep.

# Royal Audience Room’s Perspective

“I have no words for this miserable display,” Haku said.

“Oh, but I do. Pathetic, disgraceful, and so on. Though I suppose incompetent fits him best,” Core 6 said.

“Ahaha, you two sure are mean. Core 564 is doing his best here,” Father chastised.

Those in the audience room had watched closely as Keima’s Gargoyles broke into the mansion through the windows and touched the Dummy Core. The Succubi had run out of luck when they opened the windows to vent the smoke, or really, they had just killed themselves.

“Hmmm. Should Core 564 have made his move as soon as the staircase was set on fire, I wonder. What do you think, Haku, Core 6?”

“I believe he should have abandoned the mansion at once, Father,” Haku replied.

“...I can hardly disagree. There was no way out of that situation. Though I can sympathize with not wanting to abandon your home, so I can’t say much here.”

It hadn’t been a mistake for Core 564 to go after Core 666 directly. Not many people would expect their staircases to be broken and burned. One could even say it was one of the few good options for him once the staircase was set aflame.

“That said, it is nothing short of embarrassing that a 500 batch Core could not keep up with a 600 batch Core in an even fight,” Core 6 added.

“...Agreed,” Haku said, averting her eyes while remembering that she had lost to Rokuko and Keima in an even fight before. Father watched that with a grin.

“Putting that aside, which of them do you think will win now, Core 6?”

“A good question. I would say there remains a chance for a stunning turnabout, but things are clearly not in Core 564’s favor. I imagine it will be hard for him to win at this point. It also remains to be seen how Core 666 will finish him off.”

Core 6 thus determined that if Core 564 didn’t have a trump card, the best he could do from then on was buy time.

“Okay, let’s see what Core 564 thinks. Looks like he’s calmed down now that he’s at the bottom of his dungeon.”

“Sir! As you wish,” Core 6 stated before connecting his monitor with Core 564’s. There they saw Core 564 punching a Succubus’s stomach with a furious expression on his face.

“Curses! Why is this happening to me?! There’s only three 600 batch Cores on their side!”

“I see you are in a panic, Core 564.”

“Ah! I-I didn’t see you there, Core 6! Forgive me for subjecting you to that.”

“Did that Succubus commit any grave errors?”

“No, not at all. She just exists to be punched, of course.”

“I see.”

Core 6 was unfazed, since the weak being dominated by the strong was the way of the Demon King faction. Haku grimaced beside him, Reason being, a happy smile had drifted on the Succubus’s face as she was being beaten, like she was overjoyed by the violence inflicted on her. That reminded her of something unpleasant.

“In any case, what do you intend to do now?”

“Sir! Of course, I will launch a successful counterattack. They have somehow reached the third floor already, but all their monsters are weak and pose no threat on their own. They will never be able to defeat the elite soldiers guarding the staircase to the sixth floor—my own Four Heavenly Kings! Not to mention the greatest [Gate of Wisdom] I have ever conceived protecting the fourth floor. They will never reach me!”

“Fascinating. You must have prepared some very deadly monsters and very devious puzzles.”

“But of course! I predict that I will be able to calmly watch on in safety while they are unable to do anything. Once I’ve weathered their pathetic attack, I just need to boldly launch my counteroffensive!”

Core 6 doubted things would go that well for him. Haku confirmed to herself that the battle was already over. Father just listened on with a smile.

“...Do not disappoint me with any more pathetic displays, understood?”

“...Ah! Y-Yes sir! I will obtain victory without fail!”

Despite already having the full intention of cutting him off, Core 6 misled him before cutting off the call.

“...What was with that ‘don’t disappoint me’ bit at the end there, hmm?” Haku asked.

“Oh, I don’t want to hear it. He’s doomed no matter what I say.”

“Given how one-sided things have been, you’re not wrong.” Haku let out a sigh, and Father took the opportunity to ask her a question with a smile.

“So, Haku. How much of a challenge do you think the [Gate of Wisdom] and Four Heavenly Kings will pose to Keima?”

“The battle will be done by tomorrow by the latest, Father,” Haku said flatly.

“Interesting. You seem pretty confident about that. Any reason why?”

“First of all, it didn’t even take half a day for things to get to this point. Secondly, now that Core 564 has abandoned the mansion itself, they can focus their attack on the basement dungeon. On top of that, unless the Four Heavenly Kings are stronger than Core 564, they won’t be able to stop Core 666. Even if they are unnaturally strong, it won’t be hard for Keima to think of a way to bring them down.”

“What about the [Gate of Wisdom]? Core 564 seemed pretty proud of it.”

“I’m not even sure if we should be factoring that into the equation, but either way, it’s hard to imagine him beating Keima in a battle of wits, and given how proud he was of it, the floor itself is unlikely to be particularly large on its own,” Haku said. That reminded her of a bad memory, and she shut her eyes with her brows furrowed.

“So we can think of this as the final stage of the fight?”

“Yes. If things go quickly, the battle might be over by the end of the day. Keima’s finished all of his Dungeon Battles within a single day so far, it seems.”

Thinking back, it was a bit... no, it was very abnormal that Keima had won all of his Dungeon Battles. According to him, he just wanted to get these tedious wastes of sleeping time over as soon as possible, but the fact he actually managed to win them in a single day was outright abnormal.

“Hold on a moment, Haku,” Core 6 interjected. “Perhaps it’s less that the Dungeon Master can win in a day, and more that he can only fight for a day?”

“Well, Keima is a human, so he does need his rest.”

“Considering that from another angle, would it not mean that if you can survive until he needs to sleep, an opportunity for victory will arise?”

“Not a chance.”

Rokuko and Core 629 would be there while Keima was resting, not to mention Core 666. There being three Dungeon Cores may make one think of the losing Dragon King team from last year, but Rokuko was among them, and she had Keima’s approval as a strategist now. Considering how much Rokuko had been growing as of late, it was unlikely she would ever be outmatched by Core 564.

“...Not a chance.”

“You didn’t need to say it twice. In any case, with that settled, I suppose I’ll just enjoy the comical sight of Core 564’s failure,” Core 6 said while settling into his sofa.

“I shall do the same,” Haku replied before taking a cream soda out of {Storage} and bringing it to her lips.

“Haku? You sure are eating... drinking(?) that with a lot of enthusiasm. What is it?”

“Oh my. You aren’t familiar with this, Father? It’s known as cream soda. Keima gave it to me in return for lending him some of my forces. Ahem... And no, you can’t have it.”

“Please, won’t you reconsider?!”

“Why not just make one yourself? I’m sure you are more than capable of that.”

“What would be the point, then? Come on, Haku, please.”

“Very well then. Just know that you will owe me a favor after this.”

For whatever reason, Father enjoyed the cream soda handed over to him quite a lot. Core 6 watched on enviously, but he was never given a sip.

# Keima’s Perspective

As the dungeon conquest advanced, we came across several obstacles that my oh-so-beloved human wave tactics couldn’t overcome. One of them was a [Gate of Wisdom], and unlike my fake Golem-made [Gate of Wisdom], it was an iron wall made directly stronger by the simplicity of the answer. Unless it was literally unsolvable, it would be beyond our means to just destroy it with normal squirrels, leaving us with no chance but to solve the puzzle.

“Keima, about the [Gate of Wisdom].”

“Yeah? Bit too much for just squirrels to get through, huh?”

“No, I kinda already broke through it.”

Rokuko had solved the puzzle without me needing to even look at it. Man, what an easy job for me.

“Wow. What was the puzzle?”

“It was just a normal quiz, actually. With multiple choice answers attached. I got through it in three goes.”

Is Core 564 stupid? With multiple choices, we can get through just by answering as many times as there are choices.

Now, a normal adventurer would only get one chance to answer, since a wrong choice would mean death. And while I could appreciate how mentally straining that would be for them, this was a Dungeon Battle. We had as many pawns as we needed.

Rokuko just charged it down, and with the noble sacrifice of two squirrels solved the problem without even having to think about it. And since we had over a hundred and thirty squirrels left, it didn’t even hurt to do that.

As an aside, the question was apparently about customs of the Demon King faction... or the Demon Realm, that is. The answer was simple enough if you did a little research, but adventurers would never know the answers on their own, so there was a high chance of them dying when trying to get through the gate. And since the dungeon itself was in the Demon Realm, the [Gate of Wisdom] functioned properly with that kind of question.

“Wowee, that was something else,” Core 629 said. “Rokuko, you sure didn’t hesitate to lead those squirrels to their death.”

“Ahaha, that’s because I’m a great Dungeon Core! I’m rank 180, after all! The second highest of all the 600 batch!”

Yeah, that sure is a lot of growth from the very bottom rank.

“Honestly, it’s his fault for letting the squirrels ask one at a time. He should have worked around that,” Rokuko noted.

“He probably made it thinking about a single adventurer or a single party coming for him... Y’know, I think I’ve got a grasp on how the Demon King faction operates now.”

Regardless, this was a huge letdown. I’d gone out of my way to teach the adventurers the ancient phalanx formation by calling it wotagei since we were dealing with a 500 batch Core here, but man... Maybe I should go ahead and return the Safe Zone to the rabbit dungeon already. Seems like they’re about to investigate why the ambush was extra big and why it’s still in danger mode over there, so yeah. Nothing good would come from them finding the gate in the lower levels, though I guess Ichigo and the rabbits could stop them for me.

The basement dungeon exploration on the other hand was proceeding smoothly. We conquered the fifth floor and moved on to the sixth. Aidy was advancing through it leisurely along the shortest path to each staircase, and was just reading the [Gate of Wisdom].

Aidy looked at the still-open door, along with the question attached to it. “The structure of a human farm is... Hmm. I see what he was going for here. I would think that only a member of the Demon King faction would know the answer to this, Rokuko. I’m impressed you managed to solve it.”

“Eheh. It was a piece of cake.”

“My my! Did you take an interest in me and research my culture’s customs? It does make sense to want to learn more about your archenemy, I agree. I’m so glad to hear you say that.”

“O-Of course! Eheh!”

Wrong move, Rokuko. Now you’re gonna be in trouble if she asks you about the Demon King faction later.

“Oh, looks like we found the floor six Boss Room. Good luck with him, Aidy.”

“Aha, just leave him to me.”

“If you don’t hurry, I’ll beat him first.”

“Now that might be even more fun. I do want to see how you fight... But either way, I must hurry.”

It’s good to have allies that are strong in a fight, I thought before noticing that Niku was looking at me like she wanted to say something.

“.........”

“Hm? What’s up, Niku?”

“...Should I go fight too?” Niku asked, her wagging tail showing that she was really eager to go.

“Nah, focus on controlling the squirrels for now.” I rely on Niku a lot in our normal lives, but this is a Dungeon Battle. Niku’s pretty good at controlling like a hundred squirrels at once, so leaving her to that is for the best.

Anyway. How’s the Boss Room looking?

“...Ah.”

“Hm? Something up, Rokuko?”

“Umm, sorry, I kinda beat it already. Let’s move on to the next floor.”

Uhhh... She beat it before I could even look at the Boss Room? Seriously?

“What kind of boss was it?”

“A Black Minotaur. He was saying something about being the first of the Four Heavenly Kings, but I stuffed a squirrel in his throat and that was that.”

Oh, alright. She used the suffocation strat I used on Haku back in the day. Can’t really blame her there. She knew how to kill Minotaurs and she just went through the motions. Nothing wrong there. The Black in its name probably signifies it having an elemental affinity of some kind, but it was its own fault for having a weakness like needing to breathe to survive.

“Since he said there’s Four Heavenly Kings, does that mean there’s three more bosses?”

“Sharp thinking, Mikan. I had the same thought.”

“Oh wow, we’re already on the next floor,” Rokuko said. “And it looks like there’s basically nothing but the Boss Room on this floor? I hope the next three are like this, it would make things a lot faster.”

Apparently the sixth floor just had a rest spot and a Boss Room. Aaand we found the seventh floor’s Boss Room in no time. I guess floors six through nine are dedicated to boss fights with the Four Heavenly Kings, and then Core 564 is just chilling on the tenth floor? It’s a boss rush that doesn’t need any exploration. Sooo... I guess we can just leave the rest to Aidy?

“Anyway, let’s see what this second Heavenly King is all about. I didn’t get to see the first one in time, so yeah.”

“Uh-huh. Niku, Ichika. Control thirty squirrels each and take a peek inside.”

“Okay.”

“Roger that, girl.”

“I-I’m gonna control ten of them too!” stammered out Mikan. He didn’t seem very confident about it, but this was in fact his Dungeon Battle after all. Really, I wouldn’t have minded him working a bit harder, even. But either way, I decided to just watch over this part without giving any orders myself. It was pretty likely none of the squirrels would be needed after this point anyway.

The squirrels slid into the room, and there was a Ghost.

“S... S-So you’ve finally arrived! I am one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Hiniere of Wrath!” The Ghost introduced himself to the squirrels, with a little stumbling. Or rather, it was safe to say that he was talking to us through the squirrels. Otherwise he would have to be a pretty lonely Ghost, just outright talking to squirrels that came by his room.

“Tonde was... was a real idiot, always bragging to us about how strong he was, but I never thought he would be massacred like that! Still, don’t expect that to work on me! I’m a Ghost!”

...A Ghost, huh. Yeah, kinda hard to imagine squirrels beating him.

“Everyone, retreat to the rest spot!” Rokuko’s decision was swift.

“Okay.”

“You got it.”

“Okie dokie.”

“Wha?! H-Hey, where are you all going?!”

The squirrels smoothly returned to the room they were just in.

“I-I-I’m not gonna let you get away! Don’t think you can escape when I can pass through walls, you animals!” the Ghost yelled while chasing after them. He passed through the walls, going all the way to the rest spot... thereby deactivating the Boss Room by leaving it.

“Oh wow. He’s kinda dumb, huh?” Rokuko observed.

“I guess he’s the real idiot!” Mikan agreed.

They then split the squirrels into two groups, with one leading the ghost off while the other passed through the empty Boss Room. A single adventurer or a single party would probably have a real hard time with a Ghost that can suddenly pop out of walls and chase them out of a Boss Room, but well, that wasn’t us. Either he was completely ignoring that this was a Dungeon Battle, or he wasn’t equipped to change his line of thinking... Well, either way, Aidy could slice him in half with her flame Magic Blade, so we could just ignore him. Onwaaards.

The next floor had a Boss Room right after the staircase, as expected. Inside was the third of the Four Heavenly Kings.

“Avoiding Hiniere to come here was clever. I am Natsuno of Sorrow, one of the Four Heavenly Kings. But I don’t want to suffocate to death from a squirrel crawling into my throat, so I will open the way for you! Please spare me!”

The third of the Four Heavenly Kings was a Succubus, but she caved in immediately and refused to fight. Was she not ordered to fight to the death or anything...? Should dungeon monsters really be ignoring direct orders?

“To be honest, I have no chance of winning here. I might be able to {Charm} a human, but squirrels? And a whole swarm of them? No way. Oh, and I actually came from outside the dungeon. I’m not a dungeon monster or anything, so I don’t need to obey any orders. Actually, like, I’m done here. I’m leaving for good. Now, go on ahead. Don’t let me hold you back.”

W-Well, if that’s how it is, I guess we don’t need to go out of our way to kill her. We went ahead and passed through. But leaving for good, huh? I never thought about a monster really doing that before.

We advanced to the next floor while Natsuno saw us off with a smile. Pretty good progress. Guess the last of the Four Heavenly Kings is up. Unless there’s five? I hope not.

And thus, floor nine. Before us stood the fourth of the Four Heavenly Kings.

“To think you would come this far... I am the final member of the Four Heavenly Kings, Mousse of Bliss! Don’t expect to suffocate me when I can transform into a throng of bats! Now, come at me! I will swipe you away with my claws and fangs!”

Oh, a Vampire! It’s a Vampire! Yeah, it would be hard to suffocate a throng of bats, for sure. No way does he have his attack power set to 0 like good ol’ Rei back home, so this might just be a hard foe for us.

“So, Keima. Which do you think would be stronger: a throng of bats or a throng of squirrels? Keeping in mind the layout of the Boss Room,” Rokuko said.

“Uh... Why don’t you give fighting a shot and see?”

“I think I will.”

A Vampire strong enough to be the last of Core 564’s personal Four Heavenly Kings must have all sorts of powers like changing into mist and wolves on top of the bats. Right...?

“Leave this to me! The Bouncy Bouncy Attack will work just fine with squirrels!”

“The squirrels are leaping off each other and gaining incredible height?! GRAAAAH! NOOOOOO!”

...I kinda feel bad for the Vampire, honestly.

# Core 564’s Perspective

“Nonsense nonsense nonsense! None of this makes any sense!” roared Core 564 as he sat on the throne in the tenth floor’s Boss Room. His pride and joy, the [Gate of Wisdom] (a quiz with fifty-two choices provided) had been conquered with only the deaths of two squirrels, and all four of his Four Heavenly Kings had been defeated in various ways. Tonde of Joy. An Evil Minotaur that disguised itself as a Black Minotaur so that enemies would first rejoice at his weakness, only to have their dreams shattered. He was a model demon who used his enormous power to crush his foes with a smile. However, in this case a squirrel got in his throat before he could reveal himself, suffocating him to death.

Hiniere of Wrath. A vengeful Berserk Ghost that could pass through walls and chase invaders to the ends of the world, giving them no escape. However, he got so mad that he chased the squirrels out of the Boss Room, allowing a different group of them to pass right through.

Natsuno of Sorrow. A High Succubus that loved to create sorrow by {Charming} only half of a party, then bringing them back to their senses after they had killed their allies. She declined to fight and abandoned the dungeon.

And finally, Mousse of Bliss, the last wall of the Four Heavenly Kings. He was a Demon Vampire born from a fusion of demon and Vampire blood, and with his extreme stats he should have won any fight easily. However, while he managed to avoid suffocating by transforming into a throng of bats, he was immediately swarmed by a sea of squirrels. Each bat was pulled apart and stopped from fusing back together. When in bat form, he was no Vampire or demon, he was just a throng of ordinary bats. He would no doubt be dead soon.

“Curses! They’re all pathetic weaklings that couldn’t even beat mere squirrels...!”

How had a group of weak monsters with nothing but numbers to their name caused so much chaos? A swarm of squirrels should have been no problem at all if each of the Four Heavenly Kings had protected their boss rooms properly. Core 564 had expected that, and thus had not planned for their defeat.

“Now I have no choice but to fight them myself...!” Core 564 stomped his feet to the ground and rose up from the chair.

“Excuse meee. I was called to be a bodyguard or somethiiing?” came a sudden voice out of nowhere. Core 564 looked and saw a black haired, red eyed nun standing casually nearby.

“Who the hell are you?!”

“Just a passing Beddhist nun. A Succubus here asked me to take up a bodyguard job. Don’t tell me you forgot.”

“A bodyguard... Ah! Right, I forgot about that plan!”

Core 564 had hurriedly hired a bodyguard right before the Dungeon Battle began. He needed all the manpower for fighting Core 666 that he could get. He had ordered the Succubus that suggested the idea to acquire her services, then spent DP in upgrading the demon retainers on either side of his throne from Greater Demons to Archdemons. But where had she gotten inside, and why was she just coming now?

“What could a weak human like you ever hope to do?!” roared the two Archdemons before charging the nun. The red-eyed Archdemon Metter was capable of casting the High-Rank Fire spell {Fire Pillar}, while the yellow-eyed Archdemon Yatara was capable of casting the High-Rank Lightning spell {Thunder Pillar}. Both were area of effect attacks that would fry lowly rats in an instant. Of course, that included weak human nuns as well.

...If they were actually weak humans, that is.

“Oh, what, testing my strength? Hyah!” the nun said casually before taking out a strange weapon—a cleaver with its blade made of chains that were spinning in a loop while making a loud gravely sound—and swinging it. Core 564 blinked. And the next thing he saw was his Archdemons ripped into chunks, each cut so clean there wasn’t even any blood.

“...What?”

Nobody could blame Core 564 for his dumbfounded reaction. Archdemons were in fact skilled enough to hold a rank in Demon King style, and they were strong enough for Core 564 to consider them his left and right hand men respectively. And yet, they were torn to pieces in the blink of an eye, after a silly sounding “Hyah.” The Archdemon chunks were scattered across the floor like the Boss Room was a slaughterhouse.

“This is called a chainsaw. If you’re lucky it might even manage to rip a god apart! Aha. I made it myself. And now, hyah!”

In another blink of an eye, the Archdemon chunks had been turned into potion bottles full of liquid.

“What in the... What? Where did Metter and Yatara... Th-The archdemons, where did they go?!”

“Well. Right here, can’t you see?” The nun gave a cute smile and gestured at the potions, as if encouraging him to take them.

“Wh-What are you saying?!”

“This is stomach pain medicine, this is cold medicine, and this is headache medicine. This is just a normal potion, and this is a mana potion. This is a berserk potion. These are fire and electric bombs, while this is a pill that boosts defense. Ahaha, Archdemons sure make for good potion material, don’t they?”

Potion material. Hearing that, Core 564 felt the blood drain from his face.

This woman hadn’t viewed the Archdemons as enemies, or even living beings. She saw them only as a convenient source of materials. Just how much of a monster was she?

“You wouldn’t understand me if I talked about drop rates and stuff, would you? Ahaha. So, did I pass the test of strength? I thought I would show you how I’m good at making potions too.”

A test of strength? Core 564 was briefly confused, but then remembered she came here as a bodyguard. With that in mind... he had no choice but to nod his head. She had a powerful weapon, she could craft potions, and she was a strong fighter. Everything the Succubus had said was true.

But she hadn’t said anything about her being THIS strong!

“So what should I do until it’s my turn to fight then, boss?” she asked, and that reminded Core 564 that he was in the middle of a dungeon battle. He hurriedly checked his monitor and saw that his final Heavenly King had lost, with the invaders fast approaching this final boss room. He no longer had any choice but to throw this bizarre yet undoubtedly powerful bodyguard at them.

“Seems like it’s already time for you to fight.”

“Oh wow, that’s good to hear. Seems like it was a smart idea to kill time and be late on purpose.”

Core 564 went ahead and tried out the headache potion. It worked incredibly well.

“I’m called the God of Chaos, and I think it’s time for me to mess this whole battle up right to hell,” said the black-haired, red-eyed nun—Leona Shishidou—with a bright smile.

# Keima’s Perspective

Having conquered the fourth of the Heavenly Kings without many losses, our squirrel army finally reached the tenth floor. If my predictions were right then the last boss would be waiting here—Core 564.

We advanced our squirrels to scout ahead and found... a large, heavy door. It was unmistakably the door to the Boss Room. And, it was shut tightly.

“Oof...”

Welp. It was then that I realized the major flaw of swarm tactics. Indeed, a swarm of squirrels would have a hard time opening a door. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it would be like playing tug of war while doing jumping jacks. Not only would doing jumping jacks completely kill your focus on the tug of war, it would take forever to finish.

“We should probably just wait for Aidy here,” Rokuko observed.

“Yeah, agreed.”

Aidy had already killed the second of the Four Heavenly Kings, Hiniere of Wrath. Though, uh, she had just stabbed him through the back while he was distracted by squirrels. It was honestly kind of funny how right after doing that she said she was excited to fight the boss of the floor when she got to the Boss Room. The third of the Heavenly Kings had given up on fighting, and the fourth was drowned in a sea of squirrels. In other words, there were no more obstacles, and all we had to do was wait a bit for Aidy to come walking down the stairs.

“Oh, you waited for me? Thank you kindly, Rokuko.”

“No biggie, it looks like we’re at the end anyway. I wanted to finish this together. You’ve worked the hardest out of all of us here, so I’ll give you the right to open the door,” Rokuko said, taking care not to say we just waited because opening it ourselves would have been tedious.

“Ahaha. What a lovely gift,” Aidy said before opening the door to the Boss Room. Inside we saw that it was modeled after a throne room. There was a throne by the center of the back wall, and upon it sat a goat-headed demon with its legs crossed—Core 564, a Baphomet-type Dungeon Core.

“You have done well to come so far. I shall pra— GAAAH, WHAT?!”

We mercilessly attacked with our squirrels the second Core 564 tried to open his mouth. But he spread his wings and flew away. I could hear both Rokuko and Mikan click their tongues. They had been controlling the squirrels.

“Grr! You intend to stop me from even naming myself?! You have no taste for aesthetics! Grr, hold on, stop it!”

“Eat my Bouncy Bouncy Attaaaack!”

“Mikan, a little more to the right! Aw, you just missed him!”

The Boss Room on the tenth floor had such a high ceiling that the best the squirrels could do was grab onto Core 564’s feet, only for him to kick them off. Having no other choice, we decided to listen to what he had to say.

“Rokuko, I have to say, that was quite ungraceful. Though I didn’t dislike it.”

“Well, Aidy, you know what they say: Nothing else matters except victory.”

“I can’t say I’ve ever heard that before, but I like it. Who said it?”

“Probably Keima.”

I don’t remember ever saying that line.

“Curses! You’re all fools! If I unleash my full power, you will all fall before me...!” shouted Core 564.

“My my, in that case, why didn’t you go all out from the beginning? You have courage, boring me like you have,” Aidy taunted.

“Silence! I will not be the one fighting you! Mistress, go forth!” Core 564 declared before retreating to a corner of the ceiling. A split second later, the throne that had been swarmed by squirrels exploded. And there appeared... a black-haired, red-eyed nun that I knew all too well.

“...Who has woken me from my slumber?” sad the nun while holding one half of her face down, her body crackling with purple lightning.

Leona Shishidou, the God of Chaos. She was a Hero, a Dungeon Master, and a Dungeon Core all at once—a ridiculous being of pandemonium known as the God of Chaos. She had previously infiltrated Goren as a Beddhist nun before kidnapping Niku, taunting us in a variety game show dungeon, then finally vanishing after leaving behind her Succubus companions.

And now, she was our enemy. Or, well, she had never been on our side before, but still.

“Keima... this might be a bit much.”

“Uh, yeah.” This is real bad. We might lose this battle after all.

We all felt the blood draining from our faces.

“...Friend, it was that goat-headed buffoon who awoke you, not I,” Aidy offered.

“What?! Sh-She told me to do that! I didn’t awake her from any slumber!” Core 564 stammered in a panic.

“...Hah. I just wanted to try saying that line. Wasn’t the lightning and stuff super cool?”

It didn’t matter why Leona was here. I took another look to make sure there wasn’t any mistake, but that was undoubtedly Leona. She looked the same as last time, after all. I had to wonder why she was still wearing her Beddhist nun outfit. Was she trying to do some double layered gag by slumbering as a Beddhist? If so, nobody noticed or thought it was funny.

“Hm? Why’re you all freezing up?” Mikan asked with a curious tilt of his head. Well, ’cause we’re friggin’ screwed, I thought just as the squirrels charged at Leona.

“Master, Rokuko. Please stay strong. We have no choice but to defeat her,” Niku said, controlling the squirrels.

“R-Right.”

“That’s true,” Rokuko replied while resuming control of her own squirrels. Meanwhile, I leaned forward to keep a close eye on the battle... Oh, right, I’ll summon some Gargoyles to help out.

# Aidy’s Perspective

“Woof, look at those murderous little eyes. What a bunch of cute squirrels,” Leona said before lifting up her nun skirt and performing a long-distance backstep that seemed to defy gravity. For some reason, despite the backstep appearing so slow, the squirrels couldn’t catch up to her.

Leona pointed a finger gun at the squirrels and said “Bang!”, causing a giant basketball-sized fireball to shoot out and burn them to a crisp. It was a completely chantless {Fireball}.

“Bwahaha! Perfect, mistress! Murder them aaaall!” Core 564 cackled from the ceiling. He seemed to really hate the squirrels for some reason. Aidy, on the other hand, was carefully observing them being killed.

“...Aidy, feel free to run away. That monster’s called Leona, and you don’t stand a chance against her,” Rokuko said.

“My my, Rokuko, how kind of you to say that. But it would be a waste to turn tail and flee when I could be inviting this splendid opponent to a dance.”

“Well, it’s your call. Keima just sent some Gargoyles to back you up if you need them.”

“Oh, why thank you. But I think it’s about time for me to begin,” Aidy said before taking a step forward. About half of the squirrels had been killed.

“Ahaha, hello there, Core 666. You go by Aidy now, right? I’m delighted to fight a cutie like you.”

“And you said your name is Leona, if I recall. Shall we dance?” Aidy said with a smile while slicing the air with the avatar of her true body, the flame Magic Blade.

“Oh, don’t expect me to play dumb and wonder whether I named myself. I know full well that Keima and his party are involved in this Dungeon Battle,” Leona said with a giggle while looking at the squirrels. No doubt she was smiling at Keima behind the camera. It was an obvious opening, and Aidy thrust her Magic Blade. But Leona grabbed the flaming blade of the sword with her bare hand.

“Is it not rude to look away from your dance partner?”

“Oh, my apologies. You’re just so weak I couldn’t help but look down on you a little. How about I look up at you instead, with my head buried in your crotch? I’m pretty confident in my tongue technique,” Leona said while stroking the blade, unfazed by the flames. The tingling situation went through the representation of her body all the way to her true self.

“Ngh... Could I ask you to stop that?” Aidy made the blade vanish to escape from Leona’s grasp. Then, she took a reflexive step back, feeling a dangerous aura radiating off her.

“Bwahaha! Don’t forget I’m here, Core 666!”

Right behind her was Core 564, who had descended from the ceiling to get a closer look.

“You’re in the way. At least serve as some footing for me.”

“Nghuh?!”

Aidy jumped onto Core 564’s face, then kicked off it to leap at Leona.

“Aha, want me to caress you again? Sure, just come right over... Oh?”

Aidy swung her blade down. Leona moved to grab the blade again, but it passed right through her hands. Or to be more specific, Aidy had hid it right before it was caught, then rematerialized it on the other end of her hands. It was simple, really. But it took immense skill to perform such a split-second maneuver in an actual battle. It was known as the Phantom Ghost technique of Demon King style.

“Close, but no cigar.”

“What?!”

And yet, Leona still managed to catch the blade from behind. In the brief span of time between the blade reappearing and the blade hitting her body, she had managed to pull back her hands faster than Aidy’s blade was moving, and grab it hard enough to instantly kill its momentum.

“Ahaha. Is the best you can do?”

“Ngh!” Aidy once again made her body vanish and took her distance. This time, she wasn’t planning a counter attack. She just needed the space. And Leona watched her fleeing with a kind smile.

“Oh! I know. Let’s do something fun,” Leona said with a clap of her hands. “I’m going to use an ultra magic spell I developed myself. If you can stop it from activating, Aidy, it’s your win. And if you can’t, well... I will be having lots of fun. Ahaha. How does that sound?”

“Oh my. You will let me win merely by stopping the spell?”

“You bet. It’ll take about five minutes for everything to come together, so give it your best shot,” Leona said while maintaining her grin. It was the complete opposite of Aidy’s forced, wavering smile. It was a smile of composure, of mockery, of condescension—the smile of one who was completely dominant. And Aidy knew that Leona wasn’t wrong in the least to consider herself superior.

“Rokuko. What do you think?” Aidy asked.

“...Leona usually keeps her word on these things. You might have a chance of victory if you just need to stop the spell. But I’m a little thrown off by her calling it an ‘ultra spell.’”

“Leona. What do you mean when you call the spell an ‘ultra spell’? What does it do?”

“Ahaha. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise for you, would I? Though, I will at least say it’s not a spell for killing. Now then...” Leona clapped her hands, and a force field appeared to surround Core 564.

“M-Mistress? What is this?”

“You’re getting in our way. Stay there.”

“What?! I can fight here!”

“I’ll repeat myself only once. You’re in our way. Stay there. Understand? Or do you want to be turned into potions?” Leona asked with a smile. Core 564 paled and bobbed his head in a nod before sitting obediently.

“...You certainly have him by the balls.”

“Ahaha. This is for my sake. I find that bossy men just kill the mood, you know?”

“If you say so,” Aidy replied while readying her Magic Blade, facing Leona head on.

“Shall we begin, then? Everyone ready? Okay... Start!” Leona began preparing the magic circle. Threads of light weaved together in complex circular patterns. Several of them floated in the air around Leona all at once before gathering in front of her, overlapping, and turning into a ball of shifting shapes.

“Goodness, that looks like nonsense. Can it even... RUN?!”

“How rude. Do you know how hard I worked to invent this?”

Aidy leapt at Leona so fast it was like an explosion. Or well, actually, the ground by her feet did explode.

“HYAAAAAAH!”

“Oh no, your cute battle cry is going to intimidate me so much my magic circles disappear! Just kidding.”

Leona deflected Aidy’s charge while slowly dancing around the magic circles while locking them into place in midair. Aidy had charged at full speed, but Leona just casually kicked her in the stomach as part of her rhythmical dance, sending her flying.

“Ngh! What trickery are you pulling?! How can you hit me when moving that slow?!”

“I just am.”

“That’s not... an answer! Nghaah!”

Leona was like a living wall that Aidy slammed against before being sent flying. Her red eyes narrowed in amusement.

“Aidy,” Rokuko chimed in, “Leona has a bunch of Hero skills. She’s probably using one of them to do that.”

“Rokuko... I would have liked for you to tell me that a little sooner.”

“Sorry. Have this backup as an apology.”

Squirrels leapt at the magic sphere—but Leona slapped them away while continuing to chant the spell, killing them all. They exploded in a red mist like water balloons filled with blood each time she casually slapped them.

“Bwahaha! Perfect, mistress, just perfect!”

Core 564’s cocky gloating within the force field was pretty annoying. Aidy ignored him and charged at Leona again.

“Aaah, what a shame. To think I’d be forced to kill such cute squirrels.”

“If it bothers you that much, why not stop protecting the sphere?”

“I’m joking, of course. Do you think I’d let these stupid animals get in the way of my fun?”

Strangely, not an ounce of blood was on Leona’s hands. Another skill was probably to thank for that. Either way, her hands were tied up blocking the squirrels.

Aidy took the opportunity to get another attack in. This time she went dual blade style, with an avatar of her true self in either hand. If she could produce one Magic Blade avatar, it stood to reason she could produce another. It was the Murderous Double technique of Demon King style. Squirrels, the left blade, and the right blade. Leona lacked one hand to deal with all of them.

“Down you go.”

But she did have two legs ready and waiting. Without faltering for a moment, Leona flipped the skirt of her nun outfit—complete with a suggestive, airy slit running down the middle of it—and kicked one of the blades out of Aidy’s hand.

“Ngh! Quite the dexterous one, I see!”

“Ahaha, dancing is my specialty. I have a blade dance skill, after all.”

It was then that Aidy realized that it was abnormal that Leona could deal with the swarm of squirrels with a single hand.

“It’s like she’s sucking them all into one place,” Rokuko murmured over the call. The only answer was that she was using some skill to focus all the attacks into one place.

“You’re... guiding them?”

“Yep, that’s right—or close enough, anyway. I’m using {Attraction} and {Repulsion} here. Very nice skills, although they are boosted by my {Ultra Strengthening} skill.”

{Ultra Strengthening}—a skill that boosted the power of skills, and a Hero skill of its own. That explained the absurd effect of the skills. But how should it be countered? Aidy clicked her tongue.

“Don’t worry, {Ultra Strengthening} is restricted in that it can’t strengthen other Hero skills.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

Normal skills being boosted to absurd heights through {Ultra Strengthening} basically meant that all of her skills were Hero Skills. Aidy couldn’t help but force a grin. Nothing about Leona wasn’t absurd.

“Don’t worry! You can only strengthen as many skills a day as {Ultra Strengthening} has levels!”

“Oh, fascinating. And what level is your {Ultra Strengthening}?”

“Good question. I’d like to know too,” Leona said, playing dumb while swinging her hands. She hadn’t dropped a single bead of sweat. Was she a monster? Oh, right. Rokuko had just called her one.

“Now then, all I have to do is say the key word and the ultra spell is done,” Leona announced out of nowhere. That was way too fast.

“It hasn’t even been three minutes yet.”

“Correct, but I finished up the sphere faster than I thought. That said, I think I’ll hold off on activating it for another two minutes. Aren’t I nice?” Leona said with a mocking tone. Aidy clicked her tongue.

“I suppose you won’t mind if I use one of my ultimate techniques, then.”

“Go ahead. I’ll wait.”

Leona’s thoroughly arrogant attitude convinced Aidy to use her technique without holding back at all. {Crimson Road}, Aidy’s ace in the hole, a skill that could only be used a single time per day. It was an ultimate technique where she thrust her blade at a single point and burned everything in her way to a crisp.

She planted her feet in the ground and readied her aim carefully. Leona maintained her smile while slapping away squirrels. There were barely any of them left, but they kept leaping to their deaths to distract Leona. Though it was unlikely that Leona would do anything even if they did stop.

“Aidy, be careful. She might reverse the attack.”

“...Oh, that wouldn’t be good at all... Though worry not, I won’t be dying here.”

Aidy maintained her form even as Rokuko gave her advice. She heightened her strength as far as it would go. She could activate the skill at any time, but building up one’s strength first would increase the power even further. The air around Aidy twisted from the waves of heat.

“You have one minute leeeft,” Leona called out casually.

“I would love to see that smug grin of yours twisted in agony,” Aidy said.

“Be the change you want to see in the world, sweetie,” Leona replied.

With that taunt dropped, Aidy finally unleashed her {Crimson Road}.

“Here I come! {Crimson Road}...!”

Leona was standing directly in between the magic sphere and Aidy. If she moved the sphere would be hit, and if she stayed in place she would be hit head-on.

The blistering beam of red light shot straight toward Leona, and... she slid to the side, making no effort at all to protect the magic sphere. The heat, mana, and raw energy of {Crimson Road} slammed into the sphere, tearing it apart and making the strings of light disappear.

Leona, having let the attack pass right through, put a hand on her mouth and laughed. “Oh noooo! You destroyed the sphere. Too bad for me!” she said, not sounding sad at all. Aidy clicked her tongue.

“I fell for your trap... That sphere really was nonsense, wasn’t it?”

“Correct! And you sure fell for it. I love it when that happens!”

Indeed. Leona had never said that the shining sphere of magic circles was necessary to activate her ultra magic. It was just for show—it was a decoy. And Aidy had wasted her ultimate attack on it.

“Time’s up. Ultra spell, activate... {Enchant Root: Ecchi}!” A true magic sphere bloomed out of Leona’s body. It was an activated sphere that could no longer be stopped. And with it done, she added on another chant.

“...{Force Call: Dungeon Core Number 89, Haku Laverio}.”

In an instant, Haku appeared in front of Leona, sitting on the air as if it were a sofa.

“What? Ah!” But her sofa hadn’t been summoned with her, so she fell right on her butt. “Wh-What in the world...?”

“Hello there, li’l Haku!”

“Wha, L-Leona?! Ngh, so you’re behind this!” Haku instantly leapt up, pulled a long white spear from {Storage}, and assumed a battle stance. She scanned the area while keeping Leona in view.

“Haku... What are you doing here?”

“Core 666? I would like to know that myself... What’s going on here? Were you not resting before going to fight Core 564?”

They weren’t on the same page at all. Haku and Aidy floundered to figure out what was going on, but Leona had the answer for them.

“Ah, that was just a fake video feed I was sending your way. Pretty convincing stuff, huh?”

“...What? Hold on, Leona. Fake video? What are you talking about? Don’t tell me...”

“Don’t tell you I infiltrated Father’s system? Well, you guessed right! I did.”

Haku froze with an expression of shock on her face. Dungeon functions and the like were part of a system that Father, the God of Darkness, had invented. Infiltrating it meant that Leona truly was on equal footing with a true god.

“He should be able to see us now since I’ve canceled the feed. Bonjour! Yaaay! Can you see us, Father? How does it feel to have your system infiltrated? I bet you’re happier than you’ve ever been.”

Aidy understood what Leona had done, but the full extent of its significance escaped her.

“What have you done, Leona?!” Haku spat out.

“Hold on just a sec. Let me call over one more person... {Force Call: Keima Masuda}.”

An instant later, Keima was summoned from Core 629’s Master Room into the Boss Room.

# Keima’s Perspective

In the blink of an eye, I was suddenly right in front of Leona.

“...Uh? Wait, what?!”

“There you are, Keima. It’s been so long!”

Leona was standing in place with a smile. Haku was shooting her a murderous glare. Aidy was frozen in place, having no idea what to do. Core 564 was sitting in the force field.

...I knew what was going on since I had been observing the situation through the monitor. I could understand that if Haku had been summoned, it made perfect sense that she’d be able to summon me too.

“...Why’d you summon me here?”

“Because it seemed like it’d be fun, really.”

Yep. That sure is a Leona thing to do.

“Leona! Summoning me here was the biggest mistake of your soon to be over life! Prepare yourself!” Haku declared before thrusting her spear at Leona, but Leona backhanded the tip of the spear away while keeping her eyes locked on me. She didn’t even bother to look. And while both the thrust and her backhand had been too fast for me to see, I could guess Leona had managed it thanks to her Hero skills.

“Also... I made Aidy use her ultimate technique and everything just for fun, you know? I needed to make up for that and give her some backup somehow,” Leona said, her logic being a mystery to everyone but herself. Though I guess it... kind of made sense? She had teased Aidy, and was making up for it by... summoning help.

“That said, I only really summoned Haku to show the full extent of what I can do, so yeah. Hyah!”

“Ngh!”

Leona flicked her hand, and Haku’s arms froze as if something invisible were restraining her in place.

“Haku’s a bit too strong to be fair backup, so I’ll seal her for a bit. {Force Seal: N}.”

“Ngh, ah, nnn! I can’t, my strength...!”

“Aha! It worked? It worked, right! Another successful experiment! I love you, sweet little Haku!”

What in the world was going on in front of me? Leona was happily stroking Haku’s cheek.

“Even your angry face is super cute! And well, don’t worry. The weakness will only last a single afternoon.”

“Ngh!” Haku gave her a sharp glare. But clearly she couldn’t move. She just stood in place as Leona did what she wanted.

“Glad to see you’re okay, Keima, but... Can you save my sister?” Rokuko asked over the call.

“Gotta say, I have no idea. Doesn’t seem like Leona’s gonna kill her or anything,” I replied. At least Rokuko was safe.

“...Rokuko’s Master? What is going on over there...?” Aidy asked.

“I’ve got no idea, but I think one wrong move here might put us all in real trouble.”

All I could do was stand next to Aidy and watch. Given that all the squirrels had frozen in place, I could guess that Rokuko and the others in the Master Room didn’t know what to do either.

“Oh, and have a bonus.”

“Huh?”

A black ball of mana appeared over Leona’s right hand. It was an ominous-looking orb with purple lightning crackling over it. One look was all it took to realize it was dangerous.

“Don’t worry, this is actually super safe. At any rate, Keima. Your side in the Dungeon Battle is led by Core 629, a rabbit-type Core, right?”

“Huh? Er, yeah. So what?” And how’d she figure that out...? Oh, right, I guess it makes sense for her to know anything thanks to {Ultra Identification}. No point thinking about it.

“And what do you think of when someone says rabbits?”

“...F-Fluffiness?”

“Correct! Rabbits can only mean bunny girls!”

She ignored my answer. Don’t bother asking if you’re just gonna ignore me.

“Which brings me to... {Force Replacement: Bunny Girl}!”

Leona tossed the mana ball at the ceiling... and then, my vision was shrouded in darkness.

“Ngh?! Wh-What the...”

“Another successful experiment! Ah, what a wonderful day this has been! I’m already completely satisfied, if I’m honest.”

My vision cleared gradually as I rubbed my eyes. And before me was...

A leotard with latticed leggings and an open bust that left the top of the boobs exposed to the air. Cuffs to gloves that didn’t really do anything, and a bow tie by the neck. A fluffy rabbit tail on the butt. And finally, a headband with rabbit ears on the head.

I just described a bunny girl outfit, and for some reason Haku, Aidy, and Leona were all wearing one now. Why bunny girls? I mean, obviously Leona did this, but why?

“Oh, darn. I forgot to take Core 564 out of the force field, and now he’s being left out. Sorry!”

“Th-That’s completely fine, mistress!”

I glanced and saw that Core 564 wasn’t in a bunny outfit. Wait... She only mentioned him being left out?

“Keima... You’re so cute! Ahhh, I think this is the first time I’ve ever been thankful to Leona before,” Rokuko exclaimed.

“...Hold on a second there, Rokuko. Are you telling me I’m stuck in a bunny suit too?” I had been ignoring my bad feeling, but in the end I had to face the reality that I, too, was in a bunny suit. What the hell? Who wants to see a dude in a bunny suit?

A glance to the side revealed my clothes scattered on the floor nearby. I quickly put them in {Storage} so nobody would notice that they were Golems made of orichalcum.

“It’s easy to move in these, though I find it hard to believe they will provide much use in a fight. Off you go,” she said, and then her clothes were instantly back to normal. She must have used her dungeon functions. I wanna change too... Why am I being forced to wear a bunny suit in the bottom of a dungeon?

Although the situation was ridiculous, we were still in incredible danger. Dungeon Cores and Masters had been forced out of the Master Room where they belonged, then had their weapons forcibly removed. It was the worst threat imaginable. No longer did it matter how strong your dungeon was, or how deep within you hid it. Leona had obtained the most powerful dungeon killer there could possibly be.

But still, bunny suits, really? Did it have to be bunny suits...?

“Ngh,” came a grunt, and I looked just in time to see blood streaming out of Leona’s nose.

“Wowee... I guess I did push myself a little too far there. Still needs some improving, I guess.”

Leona wiped the blood away with a hand, then dug a handkerchief-looking thing from Haku’s pile of clothes. She then changed it with {Ultra Alchemy}, turned it into a red stone, and swallowed it.

“L-Leona?! Of all things, of all things, that is just going too far! How humiliated will I have to be before you’re satisfied?!”

“Ahaha. Now that was yummy. Not a bad stone. I guess I shouldn’t expect any less from the panties of a goddess, hm?”

Haku’s cheeks went bright red as she glared at Leona tearfully. Uh, well. I know what that cloth was now, but I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear anything.

Leona went ahead and changed all of Haku’s clothes into red stones one by one, which she stuck into {Storage}. And thus, Haku had no changes of clothes. That was probably Leona telling her to stay as a bunny girl for a bit. Yeaaah.

“Anyway, I’ve had my fun now, so that’ll be all for today. Laters,” Leona said before heading to the Boss Room’s door. “Ngh!”

Aidy took a step forward, as if to stop her. But stopping her wouldn’t improve the situation at all—we still couldn’t beat her. It was best to just let her leave, and Aidy probably understood that, because despite looking like she wanted to say something, she ultimately didn’t.

“W-Wait a moment, mistress! What’ll happen to me if you leave?!” shouted Core 564.

“Oh. Right, that was my cover story for coming here. I forgot completely,” Leona said, snapping her fingers to make the barrier around Core 564 disappear. “But I’ve already had my fun. I’m out of here. If that makes you mad, well, here. Have this.”

Leona instantly teleported in front of Core 564 and took something out of {Storage}. I was too far away to see what it was.

“Ah! I-Is this what I think it is?!”

“It’s, ah... Right. Put it on your arm and you’ll probably get way stronger? You wanted something like this, right?” Leona asked with a smile. Core 564, looking a bit pale, nodded vigorously.

“Rokuko, can you see what she gave him?” I asked.

“Mmm... Something dark. I can’t really tell what it is.”

Core 564 took the dark thing from Leona and pressed it against his left arm.

“Well, that’s that. Peace out.”

After trashing up the Dungeon Battle like a tornado, Leona left with a smile and a wave... leaving behind me, Aidy, Core 564, and Haku. Plus the surviving squirrels.

The first to move were the squirrels. Most of them were dead, but the survivors leapt at Core 564’s face.

“Ngah! Hyaaah!” Core 564 roared, swinging his arm around to knock them off.

“Keima, Aidy, what’re you doing?! Now’s your chance!” Rokuko yelled.

“R-Right...”

“Oh, yes.”

At Rokuko’s urging, Aidy (looking much less enthusiastic than before) and I began to act. But since I would almost certainly die if I got involved in a fight, I focused on getting myself and Haku to a closer place.

“...Th-This is humiliating...! I will never forgive you, Leona!”

“M-My sympathies.”

I lent a shoulder to Haku as we evacuated to the corner of the Boss Room. While I was there I took out a towel from {Storage} and handed it to her. Too bad about her clothes. I’m glad I managed to save mine.

“She just... toyed with me...”

“What was all that about, anyway?” I asked while changing and watching Aidy and Core 564 fight in the corner of my eye.

“It might have been a declaration of war. Toward Father, that is.”

“Hm...” That reminds me, Leona had been talking about killing gods or whatever.

I glanced back at the fight and saw that the Gargoyles I had summoned early ahead of time were now participating. Core 564 swung his now-black left arm to knock them down, shattering their bodies. Uh, that arm of his sure did just stretch out pretty far.

“Heeey, Rokuko, do you think you guys can beat that?”

“Keima, you’ve changed clothes. Help us fight here. If you’re not going to fight, change back.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll help. Sorry, Haku. I’ve gotta go.”

I left the extremely displeased-looking Haku on her own. Didn’t want to get wrapped up in the crossfire of her bad mood.

Once I was far enough away, I transformed into myself using {Ultra Transformation}, then started busting out {Summon Gargoyle}. Speaking of which, at some point I started being able to use Mid-Rank spells even when {Ultra Transformed}. I wonder why that is. When did the change happen? I have no idea, but I might as well make full use of it.

“Gaaa! Still, more! Whyyy!” Core 564 roared while the Gargoyle corpses piled up around him. Aidy threw some swings of her own into the mix, but his freely shifting left arm made it hard to do any real damage.

“This isn’t Demon King style or anything graceful at all. What a pathetic way to fight.”

“Shut up! Silence! I just... need... to WIIIIN!”

Core 564 swung his increasingly massive left arm around like a hammer. It was like six logs of wood strapped together, and although Aidy could dodge it, each swing sent several Gargoyles flying to explode against a wall.

I replaced the rapidly dying Gargoyles. And is it just me, or are Core 564’s eyes going crazy? Seems kind of like the darkness from his left eye is invading his whole body, judging by the veins bulging ominously all over him.

“GWAYRRAHAHRAGHH!”

Yeah, that was pretty much the shining example of a horrific animal-like roar. Him having a goat head didn’t exactly help with that. Anywaaay, no way he isn’t going to lose control of himself and go on a bloody rampage. Or maybe he’s already lost control of himself? What the hell did Leona give him?

“Aidy! Can you cut off his left arm?!”

“I’ve been trying, but it isn’t easy. If I at least had an opening to use a skill... tch!”

Aidy clicked her tongue and did a backstep just before Core 564’s dark arm slammed down, turning her previous location into a crater. It kind of felt like he had turned into a giant consisting of a single massive arm.

“...Welp, guess I can’t keep playing it safe. Aidy, I’m coming in with backup! {Element Burst}!”

I decided to use my trump card, {Element Burst}. Wataru had probably already reported this spell to Haku, so there was no point in hiding it any longer.

The light of my rampaging mana slammed in Core 564’s left arm. It was pretty easy to hit since it was so large. But despite opening up a huge hole, pitch-black tentacles slithered out wetly to fill it back in. Now that’s gross, and some pretty crazy healing power.

Perhaps due to the outside stimulation, Core 564’s left arm swelled even further in size. It changed shape, too, turning into a big, round squid-like thing. Core 564 was riding on top of it like a hat.

“The heck is that? What are we supposed to do about this thing?”

It was such a massive ball of black meat that it felt like there wasn’t any open space left in the entire sizable Boss Room. Then, an eye opened on it. That was probably where he had first pushed the thing Leona gave him. And now there were spikes growing on the tentacles growing from the fingers. It looked familiar.

Right... This looks like a Dungeon Eater. Maybe it’s the same kind of thing?

“...At this point it’s less an arm, and more just a living thing.”

“I agree,” Aidy said, having at some point moved to stand beside me. And instantly, several thin black tentacles shot out form the squid-body and charged toward us. They were thinner than an arm, but were about as thick as four finge— Wait, whoa! GAAAH!

“Oh my. That was some spry movement, Rokuko’s Master. I didn’t know you were such a trained fighter.”

“Ngh, holy shit, that was too close! Don’t wrap me up in this! Fight somewhere else!”

“Unfortunately, it seems to be targeting you, not me.”

I didn’t even have the time to say “What?” More tentacles came descending upon me. This is messed up. I would already be dead if not for my Golem assistance. Just look, there’s huge holes in the floor where the tentacles hit. Did it get that pissed off from me shooting a hole in it?

“Keima! Haku needs help!” came Rokuko’s voice, and I hurriedly looked for Haku. Where? She’s not where she was. There. There she is. She’s caught by tentacles.

“Ngh, ngggh!”

Haku, still weakened by whatever Leona did to her, couldn’t offer any meaningful resistance. The towel I had lent her was ripped off, exposing her thicc bunny girl body to the world, and the tentacles were wrapping around that body, keeping her stuck in place.

Ohhh shit. What am I supposed to do here?

“Aaah, excuse me, test test. Do you have a second, Keima?”

That was when it happened. I heard Father’s voice. He had been watching after all.

“Eek?! I-Is that you, papa?” Core 629 said.

“Oh, you didn’t realize I was here, Core 629? But Keima, you figured it out, didn’t you?”

“Er, well, yeah, but I’m kinda busy heeere?!”

“Father! Haku’s in trouble!”

“Erm, Rokuko. I went ahead and cast protection magic on Haku. Relax.”

I glanced at Haku while dodging tentacles and saw that while she was captured by the tentacles, all they could do was hold in her place. They couldn’t attack her. That said, even with that in mind, I was too busy dodging tentacles myself to have a decent conversation.

“So, what? You’re going to help us?” I asked.

“Uh-huh. At this point I really do have to get involved. I can’t let my kids go around doing things like this.”

“Really?! Great! Snap your fingers and make it all go away!” Hell yeah! Feels good to have a god on my side.

“...However, there are limits on how much I can get involved. The protection I put on Haku won’t last for long. Somehow it’s eating away at my power,” Father said, feeling as if he were shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head up there. “So, could you cut that arm off Core 564 while Haku is still safe? If you can do that, I’ll take care of the arm.”

In other words, he couldn’t help us that easily. A quick look confirmed that Core 564 was less being swung around by his left arm and more just a strap attached to the monster that used to be an arm. And Father wanted us to separate them.

“It’ll actually be pretty bad if things stay like this. Could you work together with Core 666 to cut it off as soon as possible? For me?”

Honestly, Aidy and I were so occupied with just dodging the tentacles that asking us to go on the offensive seemed kind of irresponsible.

“Rokuko’s Master! Can you do it?!” Aidy yelled.

Apparently Aidy had been told the same thing.

“Keima, save Haku! Please!” Rokuko cried.

“...Alright, alright. I’ll do it! Let’s give it a shot!” More like, I don’t have any choice but to try it.

Gah. To think I’d be stuck fighting on the front lines. Dungeon Masters are supposed to hide deep in dungeons and avoid this kinda thing. This is all Leona’s fault. Curse you, Leona.

“Aidy, do you have any way to cut it off?!”

“That magic spell of yours is better than anything I can do right now!”

Time to give it a shot. I focused my mana to cast the spell. “{Element Bur—}... Whoa!”

But before I could finish, the tentacles thrust Haku in front of us. I can’t attack like this! I canceled the chant mid-way through. The monster seemed cautious about the spell.

“Ngh... How humiliating! And I’m still wearing this cursed outfit of all things!” Haku groaned with her cheeks red in shame, frustrated about more than a few things.

“I can’t attack like this, whoops!”

“...A meat shield, hm? That is so very much like Core 564! Hah!”

Apparently it wouldn’t make long distance attacks easy for us. Aidy swiped away at the tentacles approaching me with her flaming Magic Blade.

“Aidy, could you cut Core 564 right off it?”

“I do have some skills, though they aren’t on the level of {Crimson Road}. It’s just that the tentacles are in my way.”

Apparently we were stuck if we couldn’t stop the tentacles. Actually, no. Let’s phrase that as: If we can just stop the tentacles, we win. So what can we do to stop them?

“Rokuko. Got any ideas on how to stop the tentacles?”

“A flood of Gargoyles definitely won’t work. We just saw that for ourselves, and not being able to use our usual swarm strategy makes this a lot harder.”

That was true. My basic strategy for a lot of fights was overwhelming the enemy with numbers. Be it rats, plankton, squirrels, or Gargoyles, it was what I defaulted to. But this time, that wouldn’t cut it.

“Maybe you could grow super big like Dinne and stop it? Can {Ultra Transformation} do that?”

“That’s a good line of thinking.” But Dinne needed a ton of water from an outside source to grow that big, and she used a skill to do it anyway. Who knew if {Ultra Transformation} could replicate it?

I took a look at Core 564. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t transform into that thing. I’d probably get cursed or something. Let’s not have a repeat of the time I {Ultra Transformed} into Leona, then got killed by a curse.

“Keima! Fight tentacles with tentacles! One of my friends is a tentacle monster!” Core 629 declared.

“Mikan, what are you even... Wait, no. That might actually be a good idea!”

I needed a monster that was naturally huge, that I had seen before, and that had tentacles. And luckily, I had once fought a hard battle against one such monster. Yep. This is it. I’ve gotta do it now.

“Aidy, I’ll stop the tentacles. Take him out when he’s open.”

“You have a plan? Very well. I’ll be ready.”

I canceled my self-transformation, then mentally envisioned the monster I wanted. “{Ultra Transformation}, Gigaplant!”

The next instant, everything around me grew small. Or rather, I grew massive. The clothes I had been wearing ripped and tore to pieces as I grew. One could say a big problem with {Ultra Transformation} was that your clothes didn’t transform with you.

In front of me was Core 564’s left arm. Size-wise, I was a bit taller than it. We were both big enough to fill half of the room, and I took control of my half by pushing over Core 564’s arm as I grew. One should say that it was as impressive as one would expect the boss monster owned by Core 219, a member of the 200 batch, to be.

In any case, with Aidy at my back, I tried moving my arms... or the Gigaplant’s vines, rather. Whoa, holy cow. This is actually pretty hard!

I could move only a few of them consciously, and all the other vines moved as if they had minds of their own. But on closer examination, I saw that the vines attacked by the black tentacles were instinctively fighting back by wrapping around them and holding them in place.

Like a Venus flytrap biting down on any bug that landed on it, my Gigaplant vines were wrapping around and squeezing anything that touched it. That was unexpected, but made things a lot of easier. Who knew it had an automatic defense system! I had been wrapped up by Gigaplant vines myself. Maybe the same process had been involved there.

“Ah, stop! What are you doing?! Eek, ah, hyaaah!”

“Um, Keima?! What the heck are you doing to Haku?!”

Hey, my Gigaplant vines wrapped around Haku on their own when the monster tried using her as a shield. It’s not my fault. Really, I’m holding down a ton of the tentacles thanks to this. It’s for the best.

“I won’t forget this...!” Haku said, trembling and glaring at me with tearful eyes alongside her red cheeks.

Okay, that’s actually terrifying. Thinking about what’s going to come next after all this is actually the scariest thing in my life. I stealthily moved a vine to block Haku from view.

Meanwhile, Aidy jumped from vine to vine until she climbed up to my head. Our size difference was such that it felt like she was a figurine on top of me.

“Not a bad view,” she said. I couldn’t talk in this form, so I just gave a slight nod.

I focused on a few vines to wrap them around Core 564’s left arm, that way Aidy could run along them and head straight to Core 564’s actual body. Now, Aidy! Go forth! Cut Core 564’s left arm right off him!

“.........”

“Um, Aidy? What are you doing?” Rokuko asked.

“Oh, nothing, I just wanted to enjoy my fill of Haku being shamed a bit longer. It’s not every day that the Ivory Goddess herself would end up so cute and helpless, no?”

“Whatever! Just go! Do what you need to do,” Rokuko yelled, and with a bemused shrug Aidy began walking to Core 564 while slicing away at the tentacles. I used my vines to help.

At this point Core 564 was frothing at the mouth with the darkness having encroached all the way up his shoulder. Aidy stood in front of him.

“Graah... GRAAAH! Grraagggh!”

“Now then. Hello there, Core 564. I’ve come all this way to see you... And goodness, do you look like a pathetic clown right now.”

There was no sanity left in his eyes. Aidy readied her sword and gathered her strength to cleave down his left shoulder. Black tentacles charged at her in the process, but I wrapped vines around each to stall them.

“I do hope you’ll show the proper gratitude for my mercy, weakling. {Crimson Slash}!”

And so, with a flash of Aidy’s Magic Blade, Core 564 was separated from his left arm. It slid down a bit, then blood sprayed from both stumps.

Whether it knew about our promise to Father or not, black tentacles stretched out from the mass to reconnect with Core 564. But before they could, I pulled them all apart with vines.

“Okay. Leave the rest to me. {Purification},” Father said, and shining light rained down upon the severed left arm.

“...GYURAAAAHHHHAAH!” screamed a toothy mouth that had appeared on the tentacles growing off the left arm. Then, the giant mass shrunk, until it eventually returned to the size of a goat-headed demon’s arm. There wasn’t a speck of blackness on the arm. At most, there was a dark-colored baby beetle that was hard to even see resting on top of it.

“Core 666, could you burn that for me? That bug’s responsible for all this,” Father said.

“...As you wish, Father.”

Aidy hopped down my Gigaplant body, then stabbed her fire Magic Blade into the baby bug. It immediately burst into a pillar of fire, vanishing completely. A pitiful, unremarkable end to the cause of the giant monster battle that concluded the Dungeon Battle.