Chapter 335: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part 1

Author's Preface
If I don't restrain myself, things are genuinely going to get bad. Also, I'm slightly damaged by the realization of just how much dirty-joke knowledge I actually possess.

One of the reasons Deep Slaughter—formerly Nutcracker—continued playing right up until the game's termination was that she herself was astonishingly strong.

Not in a raw combat-power sense like Sylvia Goldberg or Ryuguin Fugaku, but rather... in terms of "difficulty to clear."

First, there was the dirty-joke magic she wielded. Having tainted every mandatory spell and high-tier spell in SpellCre with adult video titles and synopses, she boasted a casting speed that absolutely no one else could match.
Obviously, you wouldn't easily find people with the sheer nerve to recite AV titles and synopses aloud in a public space. And even if they did exist, they all ended up joining her faction.

It goes without saying just how massive of an advantage "being able to cast powerful magic faster than anyone else" is.

But that wasn't the major issue.

Her true threat... lay in her bizarrely abnormal imitation skills, spearheaded by her Voice Manipulation.

Show her your movements for just ten minutes, and she would completely read and replicate them via "Mimicry."
Fight in front of her for ten days, and she would read your very thoughts and execute "Roleplay Mimicry."

She was suspected of cheating countless times, but the reason management inevitably gave for banning her was always "griefing via the continuous use of inappropriate terminology"... Ironically, the game's management themselves proved that she wasn't using cheats at all.

Faced with a boss character that is simply too overwhelmingly strong, motivation withers and dies. The ultimate end result of that was nothing other than the death of the game, and sure enough, SpellCre terminated its service as a result.

"A friendship born from mutual slaughter has its own unique charm, you know... Fuefuefue, isn't this appearance intimately familiar to you, Sunraku-kun...?"

"Tch... 'Double Wand,' huh."

Of course it is. That style is a 1-to-1 carbon copy of my build from my SpellCre days. Dammit, what kind of sick joke is this? She even thoughtfully copied my equipment down to the slight details.

"W-W-Wait, wait, wait, hold on! Are you guys seriously about to fight!? Calm down, especially you, Sunraku! If you die here, you'll get sent all the way back to your last save point, you know!?"

"............You just got a new lease on life, Deep Slaughter."

"Eeeh〜? You can feel free to call me 'DeepThro-chan,' you knooow? ...Ohhou, that look in your eyes is dangerously good. It feels like the inner masochist within me is being lovingly stroked... I feel like I'm going to squirt like a whale. Ah, I'm not a dead fish in bed, by the way?"

Would the heavens forgive me if I killed her right now? No, probably not... Astonishingly, her name isn't dyed red with Karma. Meaning she isn't a PKer, so if I kill her, I'll become the "Evil" one.

"...So, seriously, what the hell do you want? I'll accept your friend request, so hurry up and go home already."

"Mmm, being rejected this hard might actually crack my mental state a little... But really, I genuinely just want to get along with you, you know?"

"My bad, but could you please pick a character and stick to it? I don't like dealing with people who beat around the bush."

"It can't be helped, nyaa..."

Sigh, seriously, couldn't a meteorite just fall from the heavens and delete her data right now...?

This utterly unbearable reunion with an absolute idiot had ground down what little sanity I had left after my encounter with Arfiliya—who looked exactly like Faer-kuso—but dragging it out forever would just be pathetic.
Besides, Katzo and I also bear the Sin (Responsibility) for getting carried away and accelerating SpellCre's decline. Trying to pin all the blame on her alone would go beyond pathetic and straight into disgraceful.

"Just send the damn friend request already..."

"Nice, you're finally accepting me, Sunraku-kuuuun..."

『A friend request has arrived from Deep Slaughter. "For ShanFro's anti-harassment measures, shouldn't all characters be considered virgins? You and I are both popping our cherries!"』

I reflexively rejected it.

"...I'll punch you."

"Bring it oo— Ah, wait, that's a way more lethal blunt-force weapon than I thought, please forgive me!"

Would I be forgiven if I unleashed Exceed Charge right here?

Making Tottori the party leader might have been a massive mistake.
Sighing at Deep Slaughter's slimy grin as she successfully joined the party, I somehow managed to inflate my deflated motivation and shifted gears.

"Whatever... We can't rewind to before we saved. Dealing with the landmines you step on after an auto-save is just part of the harsh reality and charm of gaming."

"Were you making a pun comparing 'landmines' to 'me'? Nice one."

Dammit... The fact that she flawlessly picks up on even the smallest jokes is slightly frustrating. And since she's completely immune to sarcasm, she's essentially in an invincible mode. It's incredibly frustrating.

"Tottori-kun, weren't you right in the middle of a Unique Scenario escorting Elves to a base? Yet here you are... Hah-haaan, you couldn't resist the temptation of releasing the level cap, could you?"

"Eh, well... Yes."

"Tottori, you have full permission to call her a 'noisy puke pig'... She'd actually enjoy it."

"No, that's definitely crossing a line, that's just straight-up verbal abuse."

"Oi, oi, Sunraku-kun, are you planning on adding the vomit attribute to your SM training set? Sounds great... I wouldn't mind taking it deep until my chrysanthemum blooms into a rose, but is my upper mouth a limited-time recommended menu item!?"

............

"S-Sunraku-san looks more wilted than he ever has before, desu wa!?"

"Is it actually possible for a person to express this much emotion through a mask...?"

Someone, please encourage me.

"Sunraku-sama, I do not know the circumstances, but please hold onto your sanity..."

You of all people... No, honestly, if I'm suspecting hidden motives behind a line delivered with 100% genuine good intentions, this might actually be a case where I need to take my filter off.

"Mmm, if we keep going like this, he's seriously going to snap... Come on, come on, we need to take care of whatever reason you guys took a detour for, right?"

She is completely right. Wasting time dealing with her is just that: a waste of time. Fortifying my heart, we made our way into the center of this Platen-something...

The next moment, something roughly the size of a human fell right in front of us.

"............"

"............"

"............Ah, it's not my child, by the way?"

I wasn't thinking that in the first place! Or rather, how the hell is a player supposed to give birth to a T-Rex's Head!?
For a second, I thought it was that scarred individual, but seeing no damage other than the system's damage effects, it's likely just a standard mob.

"Hey, do you think the Three-Headed T-Rex roaming this forest has the ability to detach its heads?"

"There's no way they'd design a creature like that..."

"The gore-censor damage effects make it hard to tell, but it looks like a half-severed neck that was forcefully ripped off via centrifugal force..."

Looking at the twitching eyeballs of the severed T-Rex head, it didn't seem like much time had passed since it was ripped off... or rather, since it was "alive."
And since the Three-Headed T-Rex doesn't have the ability to launch its own heads, it's highly unlikely it amputated itself.

Meaning... someone did this. And they were close enough to reach us by ripping the head off and throwing it via centrifugal force.

"...Don't tell me this was your doing."

"A Mob Train? Isn't that more your Specialty (Ohako), Sunraku-kun...? Even back in SpellCre..."

"We'll save the reminiscing for later. Tottori......... ............Add this idiot to the party too."

"You were seriously hesitating just now... Understood."

I feel nothing but regret, but if she's at least reached a highest-tier job, she should be able to function as more than just a meat shield.
With a bizarre corpse falling from the sky, tension immediately ran through everyone present. Feeling Emul's body begin to tremble on my head, without needing anyone to tell me, I drew my Duxram and entered a combat stance.

"Your Majesty, Your Highness... Depending on the situation, there's a chance you may need to abandon all dignity and flee."

"W-What in the world has happened...!?"

"If worst comes to worst, take the Forest-folks and run."

"What do you intend to do, Sunraku-sama!?"

Isn't it obvious? There's only one thing the knight staying behind is supposed to do in a situation like this.

"Sunraku-kuuuun, something's coming, it's totally coming...!"

"Shut up and get your weapon ready, you pink-brained freak! Tottori, take the Forest-folks and get away—"

"Quwrrrrrrrrrooooooo!!!"

How should I even describe it? It was like taking a phone's ringtone or a police siren and making it hundreds of times more unpleasant... Ah, wait. Even though the type of sound was completely different, I feel like I've heard something like this before...

"Looks like the customer walked in on foot... I wonder who they're requesting?"

"Probably a passionate stalker after our lovely T-Rex-chan (Severed Head) with the charmingly wide eyes."

"...Over there!"

As the tremors drew closer, it became easier to pinpoint the epicenter. Looking in the direction Tottori pointed, past the defensive barrier of thorns and vines...

Something... something horrifyingly Red charged into the vine net with ferocious momentum... and then, with unbelievable ease, tore right through the binding vines, boldly invading the Forest-folk village.

It was red, like blood.
Its coloration was entirely a uniform red—something that felt like nothing short of a lazy design choice—and it exuded almost zero intelligence. Its dead-fish-like eyes made it impossible to even tell what it was looking at.

It was red, like raw meat.
Bones were exposed. Organs looked as though they were about to spill out at any moment. Its fin-like front legs, which looked completely unsuited for terrestrial life to begin with, were torn to shreds, yet the way it forcefully abused them to drag itself across the ground felt as though it was trampling on the very fundamentals of being a living organism.

It was... It was...

"Qillllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!"

Like a completely tasteless chimera that had indiscriminately devoured anything and everything it could get its hands on.
My voice and the system notification from the World echoed out almost simultaneously.

"Everyone, scatter!!"

『Monster Raid!』

『Subjugation Target: Devouring Great Crimson Clad』

『A Raid Battle will now commence.』

『Participants: 3 / 45』

Author's Afterword
It's actually extremely hard to notice, but the foreshadowing for the Devouring Great Crimson Clad appearing before the protagonists was actually properly laid out.

Vines: "We have an established reputation for our binding power."
Devouring Great Crimson Clad: "Munch munch munch, sticky sap and all!"