Chapter 208: Sharing the Same Heaven - Part 14

In short, it's a minigame.
The Second Phase, "Illusory Form," is a minigame where you knock down all the tentacles falling from the sky to drag Ctarrnid to the ground.
The Third Phase, "Fantastical Form," is a minigame where you destroy the eight chalices held by its tentacles, which activate various effects every thirty seconds.

So, what kind of minigame is the Fourth Phase, "Virtual Form"? It's simple. You beat the absolute crap out of the meals it tries to put into its mouth, ensuring it doesn't get full. The strategy for the Virtual Form essentially boils down to that, as it will likely affect the specs of the Final Phase, "Imaginative Form," which will undoubtedly be a genuine head-on collision.

"I seriously doubt we can take down the big one right off the bat! I'll draw its attention, so scatter the trash mobs as much as possible!"

The first thing it summoned, the Arctus Regalecus, got sucked right into the octopus-hole torn into the empty space along with the surrounding half-fishmen. As a result, we learned that any monsters remaining thirty seconds after the indiscriminate summon would be eaten by Ctarrnid. Right now, I'm doing everything I can to draw the aggro of the newly summoned Carrier Anglerfish, Slavegiven Carrier-Angler.

That Queen is an incredibly delicious monster. After all, if the main Anglerfish body dies, the other monsters it absorbed will detonate in a chain reaction. And it drops a massive amount of materials from those absorbed monsters too. Or rather, I'm pretty sure the drop pool guarantees materials from the main Slavegiven Carrier-Angler body plus materials from the absorbed monsters. They say there's no part of an anglerfish you throw away, but throwing this away would be an absolute travesty.
It's essentially a treasure chest packed full of materials flying through the sky. If we had the time, I'd want to focus-farm Slavegiven Carrier-Angler like crazy. But there's no way it's a trash mob we can defeat in thirty seconds, so we have no choice but to tearfully watch it get served up as Ctarrnid's meal.

I had Emul fire off long-range attacks to defeat the familiars the Carrier Anglerfish launched at us, provoking it. Then, while Slavegiven Carrier-Angler directed its aggro toward me, the other members went all out reducing the total number of half-fishmen.
Your eyes naturally get drawn to the massive targets, but in terms of sheer mass, the rotting fishballs are far greater. Moreover, perhaps they were intentionally designed with low durability. Regardless of DPS, it seems the correct strategy is to chip away at the rotting fishballs—whose HP is set so low that even Sunraku's stats, which don't boast particularly high single-hit firepower, can deplete their HP in just two or three slashes.

"Kuh... Even if it's just one more...!"

The hole torn into the void like a black hole began to inhale. I have no idea what the underlying mechanism is, or if "inhaling" is even the right word for the action, but it's a fact that players and NPCs weren't sucked in at all. Only the monsters Ctarrnid summoned disappeared into it.
Slashing down one of the half-fishmen—which was getting sucked in in an almost comical fashion—mid-air, I confirmed that it detonated and disappeared before getting sucked in. I then internally reprimanded my weakening spirit as the summoning magic circle appeared for the umpteenth... probably around the tenth time.

"How many more times are we doing this? If it's on a five-minute timer, it should be ending soon..."

"More importantly, our weapon durability is looking really bad. If there's another phase after this, we're cutting it incredibly close."

"...Mold is a magic class, so he's better off. My bow loses durability just by firing..."

That's right. I have the Aspiring Blade of the Hero (Duxram), which practically has infinite durability, but the other players aren't so lucky. No matter how weak the trash mobs are, it's not like you're slicing through empty air. Continuously defeating half-fishmen spawning at the rate of a Musou game puts a proportional amount of stress on your weapons.
Rust's situation is particularly severe. Swords don't lose durability just by swinging them, but bows are a different story. Apparently, her greatbow is already broken, and her magic bow is nearing its limit. She supposedly has one physical bow and one magic bow left as spares, but before we even get to that, she's running out of arrows and MP.

"Can you manage?"

"...If it comes down to it, I'll contribute with my bare hands."

"Everyone... the twelfth wave, it's coming."

As expected of Rei-shi, to think she was properly keeping count. The twelfth indiscriminate summon. There's a massive magic circle that practically screams "This is the final wave," but I have an incredibly bad feeling about this.
When you think of a monster in Ruluiath that would be summoned by a magic circle of that size, there's only that guy...

"Ah, I knew it..."

"Pii."

Right, it's Emul's first time seeing it. Alright then, Araba-kun, be a pal and say its name out loud for everyone in my stead.

"Atlanticus Repnorca...!?"

"That thing is seriously bad news... Everyone, focus entirely on running awa—"

In the next moment, a massive electrical discharge—capable of reducing everything to ash—erupted outward, centered on the Emperor reigning in the sky.

"Aah... Is everyone alive..."

"That sounds exactly like a teacher taking attendance at school going, 'Whoever is absent today, raise your hand'..."

Akitsu Akane, so you actually know how to play the straight man...? No, that doesn't matter right now.
The Killer Whale bastard summoned at the very end fully unleashed the fury expected of something called an Emperor. The Colosseum, which Ctarrnid had painstakingly constructed, was destroyed to the brink of collapse, and thanks to the beams and tackles it unleashed, the rotting fishballs were completely wiped out without us even needing to attack.
Whether it heard my voice or not, we were forced to devote every last ounce of our concentration purely to evading and fleeing from its rampage, leaving absolutely no room for combat... And finally, as Atlanticus Repnorca was getting sucked into Ctarrnid, it unleashed one final, parting electrical discharge that blew us all away.

"If you aren't dead, answer me... Emul, are you alive?"

"I think I'm dead desu wa..."

"You sound pretty lively to me."

I'm actually in a near-death state, but as long as I have HP left, it's not a problem. Crunching head-first into the fish supply that I thought I had packed to the brim but is now finally scraping the bottom of the barrel, I assessed the current situation through heavy eyelids.

"The caffeine is starting to wear off..."

"Cafe?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

Riot Blood Revolve Lantern is expressly meant for "Short-Term Decisive Battles." Because dealing with the gimmicks took far more effort than expected, the effect duration had worn off. It's not like I'm going to instantly fall asleep just because the caffeine wore off, but I really hope this chronic "sluggishness" doesn't drag me down.

"...Mold and I are safe."

"Barely..."

"Nereid and I are both safe."

"Araba, you okay?"

I'm pretty sure Rei-shi is fine, but more importantly, what happened to the shitty brat? Did he die?
Searching for Stude while being about 60% ready to accept his death, I spotted Rei-shi pushing aside the rubble and emerging with Stude in her arms. To successfully protect a key NPC for a completely different scenario in a desperate situation like this... As expected, she really is in a league of her own. Since Akitsu Akane and Ceecrue were right next to us, confirming their survival was easy. For now, I've confirmed that nobody is dead.

"I want some soy sauce... Well whatever, sorry to say this if you're all safe, but get up right now."

It seems the bastard has finished its wardrobe change. Emul, who had slipped all the way down to the nape of my neck, scrambled back up to the top of my head, her trembling shaking my head along with her. She's all fluffy and shivering.

"...Shitty brat, from here on out, your presence is nothing but a hindrance. Sprint as fast as you can to the coastline."

"I-I'm..."

"Unfortunately, there's nobody else here who can steer a ship. Even a small boat is fine, just secure a means of escape for us after everything is over."

Playing into Rust's words to complete the roleplay, we removed Stude—who wouldn't be useful in a fight no matter how you sliced it—from the area. Wanting him to stay quietly out of the way rather than clumsily drawing aggro was a calm judgment as a gamer. I have no idea how the shitty brat interpreted it, but he ran out of the collapsed Colosseum toward the outside with a face that looked like he was about to cry.

"Now then... Rei-shi, do you think you can pull off that thing we did before?"

"Yes, it requires the same setup... but I can do it."

"I can do it too. I'll make it flinch just like last time, and then..."

"Understood."

At the end of my gaze, a pitch-black hole stood in the void. You couldn't perceive any depth to the black hole torn into the space itself. However, gripping the edges of that hole... were hands.

"Ctarrnid of the Abyss..."

The figure emerging from the deep abyss truly embodied that name.
It was vaguely humanoid in the broadest sense. Its massive, blood-red, exposed muscular body was covered in magical black patterns and what looked like sequences of text acting as a substitute for skin. Perhaps because it hadn't been long since it reconstructed its own body using things that were alive just moments ago, an indescribable scent—like the smell of the tide mixed with blood and death—stung my nose.
It was a grotesque figure resembling the common image of "Cthulhu"—frequently used as a motif in games—with an octopus attached as a head to a human torso. However, there was one distinct difference from the typical image.

『O Humans, the first miracle born and spread across all. O Humans, the second miracle advancing forward to illuminate the darkness.』

『What shall you accomplish, what have you accomplished? Show me. Show me. Show me.』

『O seeds scattered from the heavens, have you extended your roots?』

『I am the one who shares the same heaven. I am the one who gazes upon the world from the deep abyss. The one who knows the afterglow of the great miracles.』

『Show me the value of life. Tell me, were their—was her wish ultimately fulfilled?』

Words echoed out that could not be considered human—sounds that could only be described as being heard as a voice. Even though Ctarrnid was the one emitting them, it sounded as if multiple people were speaking simultaneously.
In the standard imagery, they usually have demon-like wings growing from their backs. However, what grew from Ctarrnid's back was a "Circle" resembling the halo of a Buddhist statue. And within that circle, eight jewels emitted an eerie glow, like fruits ripening on a branch.

"Shut up, I don't know anything about your internal lore, so just hand over the Tome of Truth quietly, you octopus bastard... This is the final battle! Everyone, get fired up!"

『For conflict is the very essence of life. Therefore, you shall... prove it!』

Ctarrnid's Final Phase, "Imaginative Form"—a giant faux-octopus against Team "Cannot Share the Same Heaven"... The curtain on the true final battle was finally raised.

Author's Afterword

• Be-honest-spoiler-corner
  Ctarrnid and the "Players" are, strictly speaking, something akin to relatives.

Have you been carelessly overlooking it just because it's a game? Has everyone truly not noticed?
NPCs and Players are fundamentally different existences, and in that exact same vein...