“I’m going crazy, really.”
A sigh slips out. The Goddess Statue I pulled out from my pocket is pointing straight at the Gear Doppelganger that’s barely hanging on for dear life.
Perhaps it hasn’t managed to swallow or replicate any other existence properly yet.
The Gear Soldier part was already shattered to bits, but the remaining core… that gooey, slime-like part is stubbornly holding up under Lydia and Benny’s attacks.
Of course, it’s only holding on. Without mimicking anything, its combat ability drops dramatically, but it seems to have incredible regenerative power.
Even with just a tiny bit of its body left, it seems to regenerate in an instant.
In fact, it was already shattered several times and gnawed on by the Shadow, yet it’s managing to resist by continuously regenerating from the few shards that bounced off during the process.
However, at this rate, it won’t last a minute before it gets completely obliterated. That means the path the Goddess Statue is showing us will be cut off.
“Ugh! I can’t help it, really!”
Scratching my head frantically, I dashed toward the Gear Doppelganger being dismantled by Lydia and Benny.
Karen, who was still around trying to stop me… but maybe because she saw me passing on the goddess’s will through the Goddess Statue.
She silently followed, wrapped in divine power to be ready to fight at any moment.
“Wait! You two, hold on for a sec!”
“? It’s almost done.”
“I get it, but Jonah, you should back off. I just feel like it would be troublesome if you replicated my appearance.”
Lydia was expressionlessly setting the Gear Doppelganger on fire with her aura, tilting her head, while Benny casually threw out some rather bold remarks.
“Even if we know it’s a fake, we can’t attack something that looks like her. That’s really sweet and all, but what I meant was for you to temporarily stop wrecking the Gear Doppelganger.”
“…Jonah. Mental corruption?”
“There shouldn’t be any monsters like that on the third floor.”
Lydia and Benny’s eyes widened in shock. They looked like they just woke up two hours before a deadline, similar to a writer suddenly getting up at the last minute.
In other words, they looked as if they were witnessing something that absolutely shouldn’t happen… something that must never happen.
“Is it really such a shock that I’m telling you not to kill the monster?”
“Yep. I still remember it clearly. Jonah, smiling brightly without hesitation, was beheading the goblin.”
“Yeah, yeah. That Jonah who thought of monsters as nothing more than machines that spit out cash?”
“…So you all thought of me that way.”
Of course, monsters are like pockets that shed money when poked, and since I’m earning money, it makes sense to do it while chuckling… but still, that’s too much.
Well, I was surprised, but Lydia and Benny did ease up on their assault on the Gear Doppelganger after hearing me.
They seemed to be focused on maintaining the status quo, grinding it down at a pace equal to its regeneration.
I held up the Goddess Statue in front of the two.
“I don’t really know what this means, but the Goddess Statue is pointing at the Gear Doppelganger. I figure maybe these pieces wandering around are the key to where the seal is or something.”
“Hmm. That makes sense.”
Benny nodded at my words. While continuously unleashing intangible shockwaves, he continued.
“They were originally meant to be strictly sealed, and because they were too focused on the Goddess’s hair, they never thought to break out, right? The Pope forcibly opened the seal and took the hair.”
“Exactly. And what did they do with the hair they took…?”
“NO! I don’t want to know! Not interested!”
Benny shrieked, shaking his head vigorously. No matter how much he shook, his calm chest looked slightly pitiful.
“Listening to disgusting stories from a male perspective is harder, you know?! Let’s move on to the main topic!”
“Okay.”
Maybe he was exhausted from yelling. Benny let out a deep sigh before continuing.
“The seal isn’t completely broken. If it were, the third floor would have long become the domain of Prime Doppelgangers. They probably just opened it for a moment or created a gap to skim through.”
“Sounds about right?”
“But even if the Pope is exceptional, he isn’t the Goddess herself, so it’s impossible to restore the seal perfectly. That’s why fragments are occasionally appearing on the third floor.”
“I think so too. To add a little, the story about the disaster overflowing into the labyrinth and becoming distorted is just a lie to cover it up, right?”
The information collected by adventurers is collated and distributed by the guild. Based on this, adventurers re-explore the labyrinth.
This has been the tradition since the guild was established, a mutual belief.
So, no one suspected it. Although there might be minor corrections due to under-researched issues or incomplete information.
They probably never thought they would be deceived from the start. How could something as monumental as a millennium of trust, the foundation of Pangrave, be shaken by personal greed?
Those who have not become ordinary rulers, but who ascended to the Pope’s position with sincere faith would never make such a choice.
…Claudia III pulled that off!
“Ugh.”
Another sigh escapes. I’ve lost count of how many times today it’s happened…
But well, listening to Benny makes things click.
Isn’t it a conventional rule that field bosses drop key items leading to hidden areas?
The world doesn’t flow as smoothly as I initially set it, but often the subconscious thoughts I insert align pretty well.
It’s probably because such content is vaguely included in the settings I defined directly.
As I nodded, Benny, still dealing with the regenerating Gear Doppelganger, scooped up a handful of it with a bone rake, feeding it to the Shadow, and spoke.
“The point is this. If the Goddess is pointing this thing toward the seal, and if we can hypothesize the process the disaster’s fragments overflowed, then it really could be that the Gear Doppelganger leads to the seal… which means if we enter the sealed space as we are, getting out will be difficult at an appropriate time.”
“Huh?”
Thinking about it, that’s right. If it’s on the way, we can just peek from afar and run back. That was my original thought.
But if we were to move through the Gear Doppelganger… I don’t know the detailed method or principles, but it’s likely that we’re not just physically moving but actually transcending space itself.
We could drop right in front of the Prime Doppelganger unexpectedly, and even if not, the option to retrace our steps completely disappears.
Benny is asking if we still wish to proceed regardless.
After a short contemplation, I nodded.
“Still, we need to go. Karen said the Pope’s theft of the hair happened almost 50 years ago, right? If that much time has passed, they may not be sitting around idly.”
“Who knows? On the flip side, nothing significant has happened in those 50 years, so we might be fine. Preparing a bit more is also an option.”
“Benny’s point is usually right. But…”
I pulled out the Goddess Statue from my pocket. In the meantime, it had changed its position again, seeming to touch rather than point at the Gear Doppelganger.
“The Goddess wouldn’t make me do something harmful. So I think it’ll be okay.”
-Whooooom
At my words, the Goddess Statue seemed to get heated, scattering bright light around.
It was simply filled with divine power, that bright light. It doesn’t have any special effect but feels warm and puts you in a good mood just being near it.
Especially in this unpleasant place below the moat, it suddenly felt like I could breathe freely.
In this small way, it was a clear miracle that made Karen draw the sign of the cross, and even Benny’s previously frozen expression relaxed.
Lydia was as expressionless as ever, but…
“If Jonah is going, I’ll go too.”
“It might be dangerous, you know?”
“Exactly, that’s why I’m going.”
“Ugh.”
Lydia, who said that in her unbothered tone, was expressing the thrill of going along with me.
Lately, she seems to step up to help with a knightly attitude without always having to flatter or role-play.
I lightly nodded in gratitude and headed towards the Gear Doppelganger, which was continuously regenerating and vanishing at this very moment.
A sticky fluid reminiscent of tar. Yet it felt strangely repulsive due to the tightly packed, large and small gears.
It’s not like I’m afraid of gears or anything; they’re just gears. So why is that?
As I tilted my head and cautiously reached out, the gears began to gather and combine with each other.
Those in good condition did so without any issue, while some damaged gears were filling out the lacking parts with that black body.
What was created was a skeletal hand-shaped mass of gears.
The visual made it look like a decayed arm was popping out from the depths of black oil, and even though I flinched, I resolutely placed my hand closer. And,
Grrrroooowwwl!
The Gear Doppelganger began to writhe violently.
Countless forms emerged and vanished on its surface, and the gears dispersed, starting to draw indiscernible shapes.
But maybe something wasn’t going right. It was changing wildly, but the shape wasn’t stabilizing and kept collapsing.
This cycle continued, forming a shape, collapsing, trying again, and mushing around while the Gear Doppelganger began to swell.
In the end, it became nearly three times its remaining size.
Boom!
With a small explosion, it shattered into pieces.
“Uh.”
I just placed my hand there, and now I’m dumbfoundedly blinking at the situation.
Amidst the blown debris, a small sphere emerged.
It was pure black to the point of making my mind reel, resembling a deep hole that didn’t show the bottom.
A small wind began to swirl around the sphere, turning into a vortex that started to absorb the surroundings.
The phenomenon reminiscent of a black hole engulfed the scattered pieces of the Gear Doppelganger, and at the moment all the flesh was absorbed.
Boom!
With a low vibration, a gigantic door rose high.
“……”
Swallowing hard from the first experience, I looked around at my companions.
They exchanged glances and nodded silently, signifying they were ready.
“Just in case, shall we hold hands?”
If we got scattered, it could lead to a disaster. I’m not the only one thinking that as they obediently pass me their hands.
Including myself, the four of us linked hands and grabbed the doorknob with our remaining hands.
“Well then, I’m going.”
Creeeak—
With the sound of old hinges creaking, the door opened. Dark shadows poured out from inside and enveloped us.
No, did we get sucked into the darkness within the door?
By the time I grasped the circumstances a beat later, a strange landscape illuminated my surroundings.
“Ah.”
It wasn’t like Earth, nor like the present Pangrave. But I instinctively recognized which era it was.
A millennium ago. Long before that.
Yes. It was the age of the Divine Destruction War.
