Chapter 287: Epilogue 〜 The Expanding Fires of the Dragon Calamity War

Author's Preface

Lore Overload Dynamit— (Death Cry)

I was weeping because there were so many things I wanted to write, but the Arnold Schwarzenegger (Commando) in my heart encouraged me, saying, "Then just write it all!", so I wrote it all.

・The Red Dragon Dances, Unaware of the Brilliance of the Splinters Dancing Upward

"───Help Me (Distress Signal)... 232nd attempt, failed. Transmitting device damage confirmed."

The doll did not change its expression. If its voice could not reach out, it had no choice but to look not up, but at itself.

───Loss of the right arm due to excessive impact.
───Abrasion of the left hand due to unintended usage methods.
───Shattering of both legs due to pressurization exceeding durability.
───Damage to armaments due to countermeasures against unexpected encounters.
───Recovery Target... no damage.

It wasn't anything surprising; the doll simply gained a more detailed understanding of its current Urgent Need for Repairs (Battered and Broken) status, and expressionless, pondered what to do next.
While operating to fulfill its reason for existence, the doll had encountered a Red Dragon resembling crimson flames... which, after referencing the shared database, was identified as the individual "Dreadhowl." Unable to fight at full power for a certain reason, the doll somehow managed to survive at the cost of its limbs and the loss of its armaments.

Its right arm was blown off by the impact of the massive "Tail." Both legs were crushed flat by the ultra-heavy "Foot." Its armaments were lost attempting to pierce the "Scales," and it had leaped off a cliff to escape the "Breath"... The left hand that supported the doll and one other person had been completely scraped away while forcefully trying to grab onto the rocky cliff face.

And changing perspectives to look at the Target (Recovery Target), who could be said to have had her life saved by the doll...

"H-Hurry up and let me gooo! Uuu, why am I even in this mess..."

"Target (Recovery Target) Rank (Importance) is Full Scramble (Total Mobilization Class). If you possess a level of rationality that permits mutual linguistic understanding with Me (This Unit), I strongly recommend that you do not move from this spot."

"No way! I don't want to stay in a place like this for long!"

"It is exactly because it is a place like this. This place is..."

The next instant, a rumbling sound like a landslide echoed. But that was not the sound of a collapse; it was an Advance.
Bathing in the sun's brilliance, a land of crystal shining in a color like a mix of blue and green. A mystical plateau that, at night, bathes in the moonlight and transforms into a place radiating a vivid red brilliance easily mistaken for flames... Directly beneath it.

A donut-shaped valley gouged out as if encircling the jeweled land. As if declaring it would dig up that already gouged-out place even further, a massive-mass trampling passed right in front of the doll and the recovery target, who were hiding in a tiny hollow formed at the boundary between the valley and the land.

"This is the topographical location named Sigmonia Frontline (Frontline Valley), the nest of the Cannipedes (Cannon Centipedes) that pierce the earth."

"Pyoaaa.........!?"

Its designated name as a game entity is Trainol Centipede Gustav.
Boasting a massive body rivaling the Arctus Regalecus—which commanded decent strength in the demon-infested deep sea—the way it charged madly across the land was a terrifying force of nature, perfectly described as a runaway express train that had escaped the shackles of its tracks and gone completely berserk.
Only the cylindrical protrusions jutting from its back carapace, clearly designed for Bombardment, gave it an appearance vastly different from a normal centipede.

However, within this circular valley crowned by jewels at its center, the Trainol Centipede Gustav was not the sole entity monopolizing the apex.

"Warning. It appears the War has begun... Fortress Spider."

Shells tearing through the air and flying forward. The moment they hit, the spiderlings stuck to the highly adhesive, thread-hardened bullets detonated all at once, sending shockwaves rippling across the Trainol Centipede Gustav's carapace.

The monster confronting the giant centipede boasted a gargantuan frame exactly as its name implied. Covering its entire body with microscopic hairs (though given the size ratio, they were as thick as human arms) that housed hundreds, no, thousands of spiderlings—its name was Fortress Gargantula.
Using its own offspring and its male mate as "soldiers"... and sometimes as "weapons," it was a fortress-like spider that, despite possessing a body that stood at the absolute pinnacle as a biological weapon, possessed the nature to equip itself with even further Armaments.

Both were bugs; there were no words, and no roars.
They simply made the overloaded mass equipped on their joints creak, facing off as spider and centipede while making a harsh, grinding sound.

Compared to those two impossibly massive entities that forced one to look up, the two hopelessly tiny observers—the doll and the recovery target—watched as the two violently clashed...

"...Hey, they're being stepped on and crushed by an even bigger spider and centipede right now."

"───Answer. Hypothesized to be a Queen Specimen of the Fortress Spider, and a Female Specimen of the Cannon Centipede... This unit determines that continued operation is impossible at this time, initiating information inheritance process to the Sisters... Piigagaa."

"Hey wait, aren't you giving up on a bunch of things here!? Nooooo, I don't wanna diiiiee!!"

This was the Sigmonia Frontline (Frontline Valley), one of the absolute most dangerous zones on the New Continent where the Fortress Gargantula and Trainol Centipede waged a fierce, never-ending turf war.

And.

From the crown of Emperor Jewels placed at the center of the valley, the "Scorpion" glared down at them all───

・The Blue Dragon is Exposed, Its Body Becomes Sustenance in Death

On a beach on the New Continent that no one knew of, it had washed ashore.
Its entire body torn and chewed to pieces by the Slavegiven Carrier-Angler's kin, injected with a toxic organism produced by an Arcorium Hermit that was lethally effective only against itself, and finally having its life reaped by the Atlanticus Repnorca. Its appearance could only be described with a single word: gruesome.

The name of that corpse was Eldranza, the wretched remains of a dragon who had once proclaimed itself the supreme ruler of the great ocean.
In this Shangri-La Frontier, the deep-sea area was an undeniable demonic realm. Three types of monsters, clearly subjected to incredibly biased balance adjustments by a certain someone, possessed performance so absurd that one couldn't even hope to beat them unless fighting in an area where they could move across the seabed as if on dry land... Monsters with those exact specs were hiding there—silently, but with absolute certainty.

And Eldranza, its eyes clouded by its own arrogance, had committed the folly of picking a fight with all three species at the exact same time.

Its resulting corpse washed up on the beach. However, no one knew of this place. Part of that was for geographical reasons, but...

At the same time, it was also because those who learned of it did not leave alive.

Jijiji, jijijijijiji, jiji.

───It was terribly starved.

Not something as simple as being hungry or lacking nutrients.
Lacking in mass, lacking in volume, lacking in every single thing that made up its existence.
The prey that occasionally wandered in was far too little. It had scraped by, barely managing to maintain "itself," but it had reached its absolute limit.

Bububububububububu...

───It was terribly afraid.
It did not possess anything that could be called emotion, nor did it possess a will that reached the baseline parameters for a living organism.
But it knew its own reason for existence. The utterly natural reason for existence known as living was what brought it terror.

Guchi, guchiguchiguchiguchi...

───It had found a meal.
It sank its fangs into the thing that used to call itself Eldranza. Swallowing rotting flesh, slurping tainted juices. Definite mass poured into a tiny body that wasn't even the size of a human palm.

Bujuri, it sounded.

Making a sound that easily made one mistakenly assume it had been crushed... it "split".
One into two, two into four, four into eight. Continuing to multiply, it greedily devoured the corpse of Eldranza until there was nothing left, repeatedly multiplying and merging while even consuming its own multiplied copies...

"Quwrrrrrrrrrooooooo......"

Before long, something shaped like Eldranza, its entire body replaced with "Red", stood there.
However, it wasn't its prime form, but an exact reproduction of the state it was in when it died. That figure, looking exactly like a corpse rising to its feet, scattered an incredibly pure sense of revulsion into its surroundings, but there was no living creature around to feel it.

───There was no one here who knew its name.
But the one who designed it, and those who managed this world, knew its name.

The "Devouring Great Crimson Clad" (Daisekii)... If "The Crazed Ultramarine" sealed at the bottom of the abyss was a microorganism that parasitized inorganic matter through repeated predation and multiplication, then this possessed a nature that was, in a sense, the exact opposite.

───It was a Locust that "replaced" the organic matter it greedily devoured with itself.

───It is blood.

───It is flesh.

───It is............

・The Green Dragon Awakens, Kicking Away Lawless Freeloaders

That Player (Pioneer) was named Tottori the Shimane.
He belonged to the clan "N.M.M."... an acronym for "Naked," "Mapping," "Market." A clan entirely devoted to charging into unexplored areas before anyone else and laying bare their entirety... and one that was on very friendly terms with "Library." After a series of twists and turns that sounded like a light novel title—something like "My Heroic Life with Elves Starting from a Mis-shot"—he had somehow been hoisted up as a hero by the Elves.

"Uooo! What's this... an earthquake!?"

"Tottori-sama! We must run!!"

"You've got that loser mentality as always... Anyway, Erina! What the hell is going on!?"

"U-Um, the massive tree that Hesh-sama made her home in is...!"

There existed a higher-tier species of Elves called High Elves. High Elves, who excelled in magic, and Dark Elves were among the few categories that still retained some pride among the Elves, whose loser mentality was ingrained at a racial level.

"That tsundere elf, huh...! And, what about that tree..."

『Who gave you permission to settle down on my baaaack!!』

A thunderous roar. Tottori recognized the sound—which felt like a fissure splitting solid rock—as words possessing a clear meaning.

"...Somehow, I've got a rough idea of what's happening, but is this bad?"

"The Green Dragon, Brockentried... This isn't a matter of winning or losing!"

The earth's rumbling didn't stop, and the shaking grew so violent that if one lost focus, they'd topple over even while standing atop the makeshift houses built in the trees.

"It is incredibly regrettable, but... Hesh-sama will have to..."

"Be the bait, huh..."

Stepping outside the house alongside the elf who had joined his party, Tottori carefully—mainly paying utmost attention to not falling out of the tree himself—stared intently at her as she folded up the wooden house.

(This really feels like a skill or something... A skill that lets you place a save point absolutely anywhere as long as you have a tree with a thick trunk and the right materials... I really want to learn it, but if it's a racial skill, does it require a Race Conversion?)

The wandering race known as "Elves", lacking even the means to resist the pseudo-dragons, had apparently polished skills specifically for executing rapid midnight escapes throughout their history of fleeing and wandering.
Looking around, one could see elves folding up their houses and running away absolutely everywhere.

But the thing that demanded the most attention here was definitely that.

『It reeks, it reeeks... My accursed brethren's... and... the stench of goooold...!』

"Hii... s-someone help..."

An elf—whose leg was visibly bent in a completely unnatural direction, even taking a woman's flexibility into account, perhaps broken—was looking up at it, so terrified she looked like she might wet herself at any moment.

A pair of winged arms resembling hammers, primarily meant for blunt-force strikes in exchange for abandoning the ability to fly. Hair resembling tree roots sprouted from its entire body, moving autonomously as if each strand were a living creature and burying themselves into the ground.

While thinking up a bizarre comparison of a minotaur-headed turtle with wing-like arms, Tottori broke into a run with a wry smile.

"Whoops, Minotaur-turtle, my bad but I'll be passing through!"

『Nuuuun...?』

"Y-You're..."

"I haven't even seen your dere phase yet. If you die on me, my brothers in the Elf Thread will skin me alive... Erina, sorry, but drag her out of here."

Handing Hesh, whose ears were longer and larger than the other elves, over to the panicking Erina who had followed him, Tottori readied his bow.

"Tottori-sama..."

"I'll play the bait."

Gaining the elves' trust in order to acquire the massive intel of "a save point that can be placed anywhere" was Tottori's absolute highest priority.
Which is precisely why raising the affection of Hesh—who had currently been their leader the longest out of the several who had rotated since Tottori was welcomed as their hero—was more than worth taking on the risk here... or so Tottori rationalized as he booted up his recording item.

Then, a sudden thought hit him.

"Wait, the closest save point just got folded up... Where exactly am I going to respawn?"

If I remember correctly, if a save point gets destroyed, you're supposed to respawn at the last intact point you saved at, he thought.
And if he woke up back at the New Continent Survey Ship, wouldn't it be insanely difficult to meet back up with the elves, who were constantly changing their settlements?

『You buuuuugs!!』

"Ah, oh shiiiiiiiiiii!?"

・The White Dragon Rages, The Only Ones Who Know the Endless Struggle are Now Decayed Steel

They possess resilient bodies.
They possess massive frames.
They are always one with their weapons.
They are called Giants (Gigant).

And they are... the race of Dragon Slayers.

『You've killed my precious children again...! Unforgivable, I'll never forgive you Udo (Fools)!!』

"Gehahahahaha! What's wrong with squashing maggots that come swarming out like bugs!?"

"Right on! Well said, Strong-Iron Fist! Little drakes like that can't even be boiled or roasted properly, so they've got no value other than being squashed into fertilizer for the earth!"

What happens when beings massively larger than a human swing around a greatsword the size of their own height? The demonstration of that was happening right now.
Two Giants and one Dragon. Pure murderous intent clashed between the two sides, and tiny dragons—looking exactly like downsized versions of the White Dragon—crawled out endlessly from the pure white dragon's feet and relentlessly attacked the Giants.

"Behold, my friend! The way of life of 'Claymore Baldon' and his partnerooooooo!!"

"Right on! I, 'Strong-Iron Fist Ambereg', will burn it into my eyes!!"

The greatsword mowed down the pure white little drakes leaping out on pure instinct. At the sight of her children exploding in a way that made the word 'severed' feel far too mild, the White Dragon Bryreinyego screamed without even attempting to hide her irritation.

『What are you doing, my children! Avenge your siblings!』

"Gwahahahaha! So you're just going to cower and tremble in the back like you always do!"

"But Claymore! It's starting to get a bit tough with just the two of us, isn't it!"

"Yeah, I was just thinking the exact same thing! Mmm, it seems we haven't quite reached the level of weapons swung by a hero yet... In that case, let's run!"

They were heavily outnumbered, and since the Giants fundamentally lacked the means to defeat the White Dragon, this outcome was inevitable. But even knowing that, the Giants' fighting spirit never clouded.

"Alright, here we go! We'll be back! Bryre... Bura-bura Neko-neko!"

『Don't let them escaaaape! Kill theeeem!!』

Today as always, and surely tomorrow as well, the battle between Dragon and Giant continues. To fulfill a promise from days long past, and because, entirely separate from that, it was only within battle that they could truly feel alive.

・The Black Dragon Yearns, For That Alone is Proof of His Existence

"Kuh... This is bad, they're gonna break through at this rate!"

"Damn it, acting all boss-like but fighting so cheap, that freaking dragon!"

"Reinforcements incoming! Wait, geh! It's a Cerberus Tyrannosaurus!!"

The tanks holding the defensive line were blown away. The monster responsible for it—resembling a T-Rex with three heads—let out a scream as it was subjected to the focused fire of the players who had reformed their formation.
But that wasn't nearly enough to stop the three-headed pseudo-dragon... the Draclus Dinocerberus. Its immense power, which had once crushed an entire large-scale subjugation party formed specifically to hunt it, was displayed in full without a hint of fading.

"What the hell does that black lizard mean, 'There's no need for me to swing my own claws'!"

"A monster doing a mob train is just way too cheap, isn't it!?"

『Hoh, well barked. I shall crush you myself, then.』

The coastal town, steadily being equipped as a frontline base for the Pioneers, was being destroyed.
It was being destroyed by the monsters instigated by the Black Dragon Noirlind, and by the black dragon himself, who casually trampled the players while mocking their frailty on a whim.

『Hmph... Weak, so weak. Frail insects like yourselves should simply submit to me in silence.』

"Don't get cocky, you're just an enemy mob! 【Flame Bra... kyaaa!?"

Perhaps if it had only been Noirlind attacking alone, the players might have been able to put up a fight.
But having to deal with the berserk monsters Noirlind sicked on them, protect the base, and fight Noirlind himself... The first wave of players simply didn't have enough hands to manage it all.

『Is your sanctuary that nest? I wonder what will happen to you all if I destroy it...?』

"Shit... He's aiming for the ship! Anyone, grab his aggro right now!!"

Power gathered in the Black Dragon's mouth. It was the dragon's breath that had once blown a certain player away without leaving a single trace behind. No matter how sturdy the ship was, taking a direct hit to its defenseless broadside from that ruinous strike would guarantee a fatal wound.

A player attempting to draw Noirlind's attention was swatted away by a horse-shaped Triceratops that burst out from the side.

And then, the pitch-black breath released by Noirlind flew in a straight line toward the New Continent Survey Ship...

『It hasn't even been that long since our last encounter, but your persistence is truly top-tier... Noirlind.』

It did not reach.
Right before impact, the Golden Entity that landed between the ship and the breath spread its wings, and the pitch-black breath—which packed enough power to turn dozens of players into cinders and still have change left over—vanished into thin air, dispersing like mere smoke.

『Ooh... Ooooooh...! That gold, that figure... I haven't forgotten, how could I forget?! I will never forget the humiliation I suffered at your hands, even if I were to resurrect countless times...!』

『Hmph, you talk big for a spore monstrosity parasitizing the world.』

『Siegwurm!!』

The half-destroyed human base. Was it a coincidence, or was it mercy?
Standing as if to protect the Pioneers' sanctuary—the Survey Ship (Save Point)—the Golden Dragon King confronted the Pitch-Black Dragon.

・And the Golden Dragon King Sings Loudly. Humans, Try to Surpass Me... He Decrees

『Unique Scenario EX "Come Forth, Heroes! My Destiny Transcends Time" has started.』
『Players in the New Continent Area will automatically participate in this scenario.』

Author's Afterword
Unique Scenario EX "Come Forth, Heroes! My Destiny Transcends Time" Clear Conditions... Defeat the Unique Monster "Siegwurm the Heavenly Sovereign", OR Defeat the "Red Dragon Dreadhowl", "Green Dragon Brockentried", "White Dragon Bryreinyego", "Black Dragon Noirlind", and "Blue Dragon Eldranza (Already Defeated)".

───────────────

With this, we close the 4th Chapter.
I've realized that I'm suffering from an illness where if I clearly set "when I will resume", I'll feel an uncontrollable urge to post, so I'll just say "Entering an Irregular Update Period".

There were so many things I wanted to explain, so here's a summary (This is the result of cutting it down to about 20%):

• Trainol Centipede: "Gustav" is the male specimen, "Dora" is the female specimen... What's that, Dora's size? Her total height is roughly 5 times that of Gustav.

• Scorpiooooons! No, it's not like I actually like scorpions that much, okay?

• It's a bit complicated, but the "Red" that blew away the doll and [---] and the "Red" that munched on the arrogant Blue Dragon are different entities. The latter is way more dangerous... It doesn't cry "Admin! Admin!" but it's basically similar. Basically, a hyper-aggressive doppelganger.

• Hero Tottori the Shimane is basically the elf version of "what Sunraku is to the Vorpal Bunnies", which should give you a pretty good idea of what kind of playstyle he has. Since they're constantly changing bases, Tottori, who is permanently stationed with them, carries the expectations of the 30 million Elf-lovers nationwide.

• Elves are trash-tier lunch packs, but as long as they have a tree and a few materials, they can use the insanely convenient skill of placing a save point absolutely anywhere. Well, the save points usually get destroyed along with everything else, though.

• Bryreinyego-chan calls them her children, but they're actually clones she multiplied from herself through a biological process, so she's a psycho acting all motherly to "mini-mes". Also, people keep raiding her house.

• The Giant Race has Satsuma memes installed into them.

• Also, during the frontline base assault event, the #1 kill score belonged to Emi-Lia-san. Having the base she worked so hard to expand destroyed apparently directly connected her patience to a stick of dynamite and lit the fuse.