Evil Avalon

Chapter 165 The Baton is Passed

(TL:By Rafael,valhallatls.blogspot.com)

 — Souta Narumi's perspective —

After Satsuki and the others evacuated the room safely, only three allies remained: Mamiya, Rokurogi, and me.

Rokurogi is the familiar brawler-type character from Explorer. I also know her job trait, 【Samurai】, so I can predict how she’ll move and it’s easy to coordinate with her.

The problem is Mamiya. Either he stopped hiding his strength or he’s suddenly spouting magic power on par with Rokurogi; he’s thrown off that harmless-looking face and is grinning wickedly. I have no information on this guy at all, so I can’t predict what job he has or what fighting style he’ll use. I should give up trying to coordinate with him.

Against us stand Mikhail Maxim and Sanada Yukikage.

Mikhail is a mid-boss in Explorer so I’ve fought him many times, but never when I was barely around level 30. Right now he’s forcibly boosting his combat ability with 《Overdrive》, but I seriously doubt we can actually beat him — I don’t have any confidence.

Sanada is also a familiar character. In Explorer he changed jobs from the intermediate 【Priest】 to the advanced support job 【Cleric】, and I thought I knew his combat style well… or so I believed. In this world, for reasons I can’t fathom, he’s become the polar opposite of support: a 【Necromancer】 who commands the dead, so he won’t be much use as a reference.

Beside him is a corpse servant: a kunoichi Red. Sanada has massively amplified it with his huge magical power so its movements are probably quicker, but those internal magical circuits won’t last long and will burn out. It looks like he plans to use it mercilessly as disposable cannon fodder.

And the stone slab in the corner of the room… that’s a gate, huh. The white-robed scum who are cut down and forming pools of blood here must have come out of there. I never knew the Holy Empire had the technology to install gates — that’s new information. It’s chilling to realize this world contains dungeon knowledge that even players don’t have.

While I checked the situation quickly by moving only my gaze, Rokurogi — holding a white, glowing sword — leaned in behind me and whispered.

「（Kid. Do you have any plan?）」

「（…My allies will come later. If we can hang on until then, we might manage somehow）」

「（Manage how — beat Mikhail? If you could do that, you wouldn’t be having trouble — whoa!）」

As we whispered, Mikhail fired a magic projectile at us immediately. Mamiya and I dove sideways to dodge, and Rokurogi tilted her blade to alter its trajectory so it struck the rear wall. Concrete fragments flew and an explosion rolled out.

I could see the projectile’s path clearly. I could probably even block it with my sword if I wanted, but that kind of magic projectile used as a feint has that much power. This doesn’t bode well.

(Okay, how should I get through this…)

They say Lisa is preparing, but I have no information on when she’ll arrive, so should I stall and fight while we buy time? The active 《Overdrive》 consumes a lot of magic just to maintain, so it won’t last long; if it ends I’ll be more than a liability — I’ll be the first to be killed. I want to conserve magic and fight energy-efficiently so it lasts, but…

With that passive attitude I can’t hold off superior enemies like Mikhail and Sanada; stalling will just get me killed. It’s better to go on the offensive while 《Overdrive》 is active and make the most of it.

As I searched for an opening by sensing the flow of magic, Mikhail released a huge amount of magic and, pressing us with it, spoke.

「Who is the divinity-player here? If you come forward honestly I’ll give you a painless death」

「…How thoughtful. But are you okay over there? With this much damage your home country must be taking a severe hit too. You could lose local battles, you know?」

Even in this room alone, dozens of white robes lie dead with their necks cut. Mamiya must have frozen time and hunted them down, but in our original world a single white-robed soldier has strategic value comparable to a state-of-the-art fighter jet. Losing dozens of them would be equivalent to the annihilation of a force entrusted with one front.

Even the Holy Empire probably didn’t expect such a spectacular collapse; they’re currently at war full-on with the European Union, so military reorganization is unavoidable and localized routs are possible. It’s undoubtedly a massive national loss.

I tried to strike at where it would hurt, but Mikhail’s face showed no sign of perturbation. It’s not bravado — the Holy Empire is just an instance of a country where another cardinal is unilaterally expanding territory, and Mikhail figures that as long as the 【Saintess】 remains, he doesn’t care how many people die; even if territory shrinks, it’ll be manageable. As an Explorer player I know that point well, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he answered with a “So what?” attitude.

Still, the mention of “divinity-player” slipping from his mouth suggests there might be a player behind Mikhail as well. Did that player arrive around the same time as me, or at a different time…? I’m curious.

I wanted to probe a bit more, but two people were already exchanging magic brutally in another direction and about to start killing each other, so calm conversation was impossible.

「Hurry up. I’ve wanted to hunt a ‘Colors’ head just once… 《Accelerator》！」

「What a coincidence. I’ve been looking for your head for a long time. I almost forgot it before leaving Japan — 《Strength II》！」

Mamiya shook his blood-smeared twin swords in front of a face soaked with murderous intent and chanted an acceleration spell. If you met him on a dark road you’d certainly soil yourself, but Sanada further strengthened his servant and answered with equal murderous intent. I don’t know what history those two share; I’ll leave that to them.

Countless feints through bursts of magic and subtle shifts of footing played out, murderous intent raging through every corner of the dim and spacious room. In the midst of that, Mikhail suddenly fired off a magic projectile without warning, and the killing finally began.

Mamiya accelerated in an instant, becoming a gale as he ran up the wall to the ceiling and swung his twin blades. Sanada countered by erecting a barrier. As the metallic clash rang out, I slipped in with a feint, accelerating and firing a magic projectile at Mikhail. First, I wanted to check the type and strength of his barrier.

But Rokurogi, who had been following close behind me as if hiding in my shadow, overtook me, exploded with magic, and unleashed the very first strike.

“Scatter, villains! Second strike — 《Hakujin Ittetsu》!”

A white line gleamed ahead, and along it a concentrated blast of magic detonated. It was the high-powered slashing skill 【Samurai】 prided itself on — 《Hakujin Ittetsu》. Concrete shards and dust filled the air, blocking vision, but a violent whirlwind swept through and instantly cleared the view. Standing there unscathed, of course, was Mikhail.

Not that I thought that attack would finish him. But the physical barrier enveloping Mikhail had vanished, which confirmed that if I went all out, I could break it too. If Rokurogi and I timed our strikes together—

(Whoa, close one!)

A servant passing nearby swung a kunai at the back of my head, forcing me to duck just in time. The room was about the size of a first-floor lobby — which was strange enough — but for several adventurers in their late level 30s moving around at once, it was hardly spacious.

Cold sweat trickled down as I reminded myself to pay attention to my surroundings. Meanwhile, Sanada and Mamiya were locked in furious combat, dashing in high-speed circles and smashing blades together with naked killing intent.

Sanada, once a support job user, had often stayed in the backlines in Explorer, but in PvP he’d shown strength on par with other Colors executives. And yet Mamiya Subaru wasn’t just holding his own — he was pressing Sanada back, servant and all. Just who the hell was he? Still, if he could keep Sanada locked down, that worked in my favor.

Dodging the magic projectiles that would cause catastrophic damage if they landed, I tried to slash in at Mikhail from behind, but his constant barrage kept me at bay. Rokurogi also failed to close in and pulled back, calling out to me.

“His casting is too fast. Is there some trick to it?”

“It’s 《Double Cast》. He can handle two spells at once.”

Normally, even with a simple magic projectile, you’d need to draw up mana from within, shape it, pull it into your hand, and finally fire it — a precise sequence that means only one spell at a time. But he’d been firing simultaneously from both arms, or using entirely different spells together. That’s why Rokurogi asked what the hell was going on.

If Explorer held true, Mikhail’s job should be 【Wiseman】. A unique hybrid that combines the offensive prowess of a 【Wizard】 with the healing and defensive magic of a 【Cleric】. On top of that, he’d learned the cheat-level passive 《Double Cast》, which he’d been using since earlier. It was like fighting two sorcerers at once.

But I had Rokurogi on my side. I narrowly dodged a projectile and slashed in from the right to draw Mikhail’s attention, while she leapt off the wall from the left, pouring magic into her blade and striking down with full force.

The pressure was enough to crush a large vehicle, shattering the floor around him, arcs of purple lightning bursting outward. For a while, her strike clashed against Mikhail’s barrier, but when Rokurogi ramped up her magic, cracks split the surface, and with a shattering sound the barrier broke apart.

For the first time, Mikhail — who had never moved a step until now — retreated a few steps to evade. Naturally, we weren’t going to let him escape or give him time to erect another barrier.

“—Die.”

Rokurogi, who had been swinging her blade in large, heavy arcs, now sharpened her strikes, unleashing compact, precise cuts as an embodiment of killing intent. Mikhail drew a thin sword from his chest and met her coldly, reflecting moonlight off the blade as a heavy metallic clash rang out and the deadly exchange began.

All right, here’s my chance!

The two clashed, magic swirling densely around them, pulverizing floor and ceiling as they traded blows. I gathered every bit of magic I could and unleashed a desperate weapon skill straight at them.

“Explode! 《Vorpal Thrust》!”
“—Return to nothing, 《Dispel》.”

Three red-black bolts of lightning flared before me with a booming rumble. Powered by 《Overdrive》, my magic and physical force were on a whole other level, the effect almost unrecognizable. A devastating slash flew straight at his back, aimed to cleave his robes into thirds.

But Mikhail had read me perfectly. His body wavered slightly, and the magic coating my strike was stripped away. My sword’s speed dropped drastically, and then even the force itself was utterly nullified.

Rokurogi’s eyes widened as she realized my weapon skill had been erased by an unfamiliar spell. Mikhail had used 《Dispel》, an advanced magic that weakened or outright nullified any skill.

I wasn’t surprised — I’d expected this. In fact, I wanted to force him to burn that cheat skill early, so he’d be stuck in its long cooldown. Exactly as planned.

Still, with Mikhail raising a fresh barrier, we had to pull back and reset the fight. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the other battle — and it already looked like it was about to reach its conclusion.

Mamiya dodged Sanada’s martial strike with a body twist, cartwheeled over to snatch up a blood-slick halberd that had fallen, and swung it down toward the rear. The upper torso of the servant that had been closing in was severed by that blow.

Ignoring the dark spray of blood, Mamiya charged at his master with the same momentum, but Sanada abandoned meeting him head-on. He let himself fall into a large hole torn in the outer wall and activated a new skill.

“Haah… haah… I’m impressed… as expected of Oboro. No wonder you half-ruined the Kinran-kai…”

“No way — that’s not it. I left them half-ruined on purpose, you know?”

Sanada blurted out something absurd while floating outside the building on the levitation spell 《Fly》. Mamiya’s comeback was equally full of holes, and Rokurogi — still facing Mikhail with her blade raised — trembled with anger.

Oboro is the urban-legend secret society rumored to lurk behind various conspiracies. It shows up a few times in Explorer too, but members and leadership are never revealed, so I didn’t know much about it — or rather, didn’t know until now.

About ten years ago, Oboro and the Kinran-kai were embroiled in a violent conflict that allegedly killed half the Kinran-kai’s members. If that was ten years ago, Mamiya would have been only around seven at the time. For a child who young to now be saying he “left the clan half-ruined on purpose” after they were once a feared raid clan — you can imagine how furious Rokurogi must be, especially with her being tied up dealing with adventurers’ guild disputes.

But if we get distracted by that in front of Mikhail Maxim, we’ll only end up as corpses. I read the flow of mana, flogged my body — massively enhanced by 《Overdrive》 — and kicked off the floor to accelerate and smash through. Freed from restraint, Mamiya matched my pace and Rokurogi synchronized with us; the three of us tried to unleash weapon skills from three directions—

—but Mikhail calmly leapt back and floated out over the building, preventing any further pursuit.

Mikhail and Sanada glared down at us from their absolute safe zone in midair. Now that I think about it, the levitation spell 《Fly》 was set up in the Holy Empire as something only the Saintess grants to her inner knights — i.e., her personal retainers. In other words, being able to float is venerated in the Empire; those who can were called “apostles of Saintess Aurora.” It seems Sanada, like Mikhail, has become one of the Saintess’s dogs.

So far neither Mikhail nor Sanada had used any big finishing moves — they’d been cautious, testing our capabilities, which matched their patterns in Explorer.

But we couldn’t leave this setup where they could pelt us with magic projectiles from outside the building. And since they were floating at high altitude, chasing them down to land a slash was impossible.

Looking up at the gaze that looked down as if asking “how shall I deal with you,” Mamiya, Rokurogi, and I began a quick strategy session while glaring upward as if to say “come down and we’ll cut you to pieces.”

“That magic is great, isn’t it? I want it too.”

“Hmph… so do you have any plan to counter this situation?”

“I do. You two — why not use those spider threads strung between buildings as footholds?”

“What!? Are you insane, kid?”

Outside, Arthur’s spider-silk platforms still spanned between buildings, left behind as connecting walkways. We had to be careful: the threads have vertical lines for movement and sticky horizontal strands meant for capture; step on the wrong one and the adhesive will hold you fast and you won’t be able to move.

I warned them to watch out and fight using those threads as footing. Mamiya widened his eyes and protested, “If we fall we die, right?”

Rokurogi only grew more sour. I cheered them up by saying that if the fall zone happens to be a magic field, our enhanced bodies might save us — so it should be fine.

Mikhail floated even higher, calmly casting buffs with graceful movements. From the look on his face, he was probably imagining a one-sided massacre… but I wasn’t going to let that happen. While Rokurogi and Mamiya glared at him from both sides, I began drawing a new magic circle of my own.

“Well then, I’ll be going—《Aerial》!”

“That’s a spell that lets you bounce through the air, isn’t it?”

The moment I completed the circle with both hands, it activated instantly, a green wind surging upward from beneath my feet. With this, I could run through the sky itself. Leaving behind Mamiya’s intrigued gaze, I created my first foothold and leapt into the night sky—

(Whoooaaa… holy crap, this is terrifying!)

The instant I leaned into the air, the high-altitude crosswind nearly swept my feet away. Looking down for just a moment, I saw that the cars below were smaller than grains of rice. Back in Explorer, I’d fought countless battles at this very altitude without even blinking, but doing it with my flesh-and-blood body filled me with a terror that made my knees want to buckle.

Forcing myself to calm down, I surveyed the area. Despite being the heart of Tokyo, no cars were moving anywhere in sight, and there wasn’t the slightest trace of people. The anti-human magic circle must extend for several kilometers at least. With such a massive range of influence, the outside world must already be in chaos.

Grinding my teeth at their arrogant disregard for human lives, I made footholds at regular intervals, advancing step by step. Seeing me in the air must have been unexpected—Mikhail’s gaze turned curious, while Sanada’s eyes widened in surprise.

“So you’re… a divine player.”

“Unconfirmed enhancement buffs, a skill that allows aerial movement… the probability is high.”

Deeming it highly likely I was a Player, Mikhail unleashed such hideous, grotesque mana that the moon itself seemed to warp behind him. Sanada, too, finally seeing his prey, twisted his mouth into a joyful grin, stabbing me with murderous intent.

Correct. Well spotted. I am a Player—the very one you wanted to draw out.

Unbelievable… back at the entrance ceremony, I thought if I reached level 15 by summer, I’d be doing fine. Yet here I was, fighting to the death against the Holy Empire and Colors executives above Tokyo’s skies. I’d already come close to dying more times than I could count just getting here. If this were Explorer, the game balance would be completely broken. I’d be screaming “Where are the devs? Where’s customer support!?”

But I will not fear. I now possess the strength to resist.

Since mastering this power called 《Aerial》, I’ve taken down countless top players and even earned the title of “Calamity.” That experience still burns in my veins. In a battle across such a vast aerial field, the advantage was mine.

And that wasn’t all. This very situation was bought at the price of my companions’ resolve and the lives of many others.

The only reason I could fight here without hesitation was because Satsuki had risked her life to protect her sister. I reached this place because Kinrankai and countless nameless adventurers sacrificed themselves to open the path. Arthur, even with an unfamiliar body, had stubbornly held the line until I arrived. This baton they passed me—I must, at all costs, carry it on to Risa. I seared that truth into my heart once again.

From the pocket turned magic bag, I pulled out the [Sword of Völgemut], its red-black aura flaring as I faced my greatest enemy yet. While recalling the faces of all the companions I had fought alongside, I stoked the flames of my fighting spirit—when suddenly, a lighthearted voice called out from behind.

“A bit flimsy, but if it’s strong enough for this much, I suppose it’ll do.”

“Boy, if you die before me… I’ll come back later and kill you myself. Remember that.”

Balancing on a long thread stretched between skyscrapers, Mamiya advanced without fear, swaying only slightly. Behind him came Rokurogi, sword lowered in a ready stance, her face twisted in displeasure.

I had thought I’d be fighting this battle alone… but with these two by my side, I couldn’t help but feel strengthened.

Alright then—time to reset my focus. Let’s begin round two.

TL Note- (Note 1) Passive Skill:

A skill that activates permanently just by being remembered.

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