Chapter 353: O Dragon, O Dragon! Part 18

"Ahahahahahaha! Did you see that!? Did you see that, Tottori-kun! What in the world were those movements? That's so absolutely disgusting!!"

"That's insane..."

Even though Tottori's eyes had witnessed that entire sequence of movements, he couldn't even comprehend half of what actually happened.

First, Sunraku suddenly underwent a sex change, accompanied by a transformation sequence straight out of a little girls' anime—only to end up with a visual aesthetic that absolutely did not belong in a little girls' anime. Then That happened.

"Basically... did he just accelerate?"

"Iiihihihi... Ahh, my stomach hurts. Well, to summarize it, yeah, that's what happened, you knooow..."

However, that wasn't the complete answer, Deep Slaughter laughed.

"I didn't manage to grasp every single detail either, but... he probably combined aerial jumps with physical vector alteration, I think."

"So, stuff like Gravity Zero or Flit Float?"

"Well, those are what people commonly refer to as Triple-Digit Skills, aren't they? But even considering that, the secret behind that level of speed remains a mystery, you knooow..."

If one were to reveal the trick, in addition to activating the Levin Trigger: Hazard, Sunraku had also activated a massive sequence of skills simultaneously.
On top of his usual arsenal of physical enhancement skills, he activated "Hermes Boots," which allows for aerial Walking until a certain amount of time passes or the user takes a hit.

Unlike Gravity Zero, which required the soles of his feet to be in contact with a surface, he used "Space Charge (Grace of Weightless Law)," which allows the player to designate the direction of gravitational pull purely through thought.

" Exceed Gravity (Heavy Law Trampling Conquest)," which mitigates the effects of gravity the more unstable the footing is and the harder the user fights against gravitational pull.

"Sengoku Burai," enhanced to its absolute limit, to elevate the firepower of "Hekaton Slash (Sword of a Hundred Flashes)" and "Lethal Finishing Touch."

"Sword Dance 【Inexhaustible Spin】," which increases firepower based on the number of consecutive hits landed, and further reduces the stamina consumed by actions the higher the combo count goes.

"Dead Horizon (Stepping on the Death Line)," an incredibly unique enhancement skill that applies a stat buff every single time the user's remaining HP crosses the 10% threshold—either dropping below it or rising above it.

And "Quantum Gaze (Eye of True World Observation)," a skill that visualizes the omens of incoming attacks and grants the user the eyes necessary to observe a world moving at godspeed.

After that, it was pure and simple. Moving up, down, left, and right—completely ignoring the ground and even gravity itself—he literally sprinted across the Body of the Devouring Great Crimson Clad, treating its tail as the finish line and slicing it to ribbons.

"Ufufu, fufufufufufu...!!"

"You look like you're having fun."

"Does it look that way? It really does look that way, doesn't it......... kukukuku."

Including attack skills, he had consecutively activated an absurd nine skills in rapid succession—a feat utterly impossible for a normal Brain to handle.

However.

However, if a human mind were to actually achieve such a feat... there would truly be no other explanation than the use of Parallel Simultaneous Processing (Multitasking), completely dividing one's thoughts exactly like slicing up a pancake.
To be precise, what Sunraku was doing wasn't a perfect parallel process—separating his mind to think about entirely different things—but rather switching his thoughts at blinding speeds, as if continuously rolling balls down a track one after another, compressing the activation intervals between skills to the absolute limit. Yet either way, it was a technique inextricably linked to Parallel Simultaneous Processing (Multitasking).

Tottori had no idea that this was the reason behind Deep Slaughter's laughter. Because of that, he easily dismissed it with a thought of "I guess DeepThro-san is a fan of Sunraku or something," and while recovering and resupplying to return to the frontlines himself, he once again turned his gaze toward Sunraku.

"...I guess you really have to go to those lengths if you want to be a player capable of defeating Unique Monsters."

"Well, who knows about that... It's not like I have any idea what kind of combat a Unique Monster forces you into either, you knoooow..."

Well, at the very least, it was an enemy that absolutely required a build overly specialized in mobility like that.
Watching Sunraku launch another attack while simultaneously dodging the fierce onslaught of the tail—which had already regenerated thanks to the red mist spewing from the red tornado raging on the monster's back—Deep Slaughter stowed her Wand and pulled out a single Rod.
Tottori had never actually laid eyes on the real thing before. However, the moment he saw the luster of that long rod—which absolutely did not look mass-produced, featuring gears forcibly twisted into a Möbius strip with five palm-sized monoliths floating around it—combined with a Certain Rumor spoken among players who had reached the "Sage" job, a specific name reflexively slipped from his lips.

"The Rod of Actualization, The Desire.........?"

"Oh my? Tottori-kun, you actually know what this is... How strange. I've kept it stored in my inventory this whole time and rarely ever use it, you knooow... Ah, keep this a secret, alright?"

"Eh, seriously, is that actually The Desire!?"

The Rod of Actualization, The Desire.
Its name was far too famous, and despite its owner's name and appearance remaining completely unknown, their infamy as a "Usurper" echoed widely among the player base.

The Unique Scenario "Ultimagia Desire (Secret Art Reaching the Ultimate Magic)." The trigger condition required the player to have acquired the highest-tier job, "Sage." By gathering items called "Fragments of Ultimate Magic" received from NPCs, one could obtain the ultimate rod, named "The Rod of Actualization, The Desire.".........
With such an enticing premise, there was a period of time when the Unique Scenario caused a massive fever among magic-class players.
The intensity of that fever was clear just from the fact that the Clan Leader of the "Witchurch"—a clan consisting entirely of magic-class players—placed a massive bounty on the line for other players.

However, that fever abruptly vanished after a certain point in time.
The Clan Leader of the "Witchurch," who had ultimately collected "Fragments of Ultimate Magic" from the majority of the "Sage" players and successfully pinpointed the coordinates where the ultimate rod was located, arrived at the destination only to find...

An entirely empty shrine, the rod having already been taken by someone else.

The "Witchurch" boasts a massive presence, effectively acting as the central headquarters for magic-class players, and even houses the owner of the "Holy Rod" among its ranks. Yet even so, the grudge ran so deep that "The owner of The Rod of Actualization, The Desire is permanently banned" was formally incorporated into the clan's operating rules.

"DeepThro-san was the one who had it!?"

"Yep, yep... While that older Sister (Mister) Witch was diligently throwing money around, I just quickly went ahead and grabbed it, you knooow..."

"Ehh, wait, isn't that person a woma—"

"That person's a G.I.R.L. Since I'm the one saying it, you can take it as absolute fact."

Feeling as though a tremendously shocking truth had just been casually exposed, Tottori broke out in a cold sweat. Ignoring him, Deep Slaughter readied The Desire and began preparing to cast a spell.

"L-Let's just put that aside for now... Say, DeepThro-san, um, what was it again... E... Eu..."

"Hmm? You mean 【O Angolmois, Great King of Terror Who Comes from the East Wind (Euros Baberi)】?"

"Yeah, that magic is supposed to drop a meteor, right... Exactly how wide is the damage hitbox going to be?"

At the very least, it was a spell that required bringing out The Rod of Actualization, The Desire to cast. It clearly wouldn't possess a level of firepower that could simply be brushed off as standard Area of Effect magic.
Initially, Tottori had been worried, thinking "Won't Sunraku get caught in the blast too?" But after witnessing that utterly non-standard speed, those worries had been completely blown away.
If that was the case, then what Tottori needed to do was preemptively evacuate the Forest-folks so they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire...

"Obviously that was a complete lie. What the hell does 'teleporting a meteor' even mean... Ufufu, impossible, absolutely impossible."

"............Hah?"

The demon who destroyed an MMO centered around creating magic scoffed.

Author's Afterword
DeepThro-san is a veteran of SpellCre. Which means exactly what it implies.

The Clan Leader of the "Witchurch" is an older guy playing a cute girl avatar. He enjoys the reactions when his real gender gets exposed, so he keeps it hidden, but even if he gets found out, he's practically invincible since the "Okama" (Crossdresser) character archetype is notoriously strong by default... However, that being said, he will never forget the grudge of spending a billion Mani only to whiff completely.

As a side note, the counterpart to the "Rod of Actualization"—the "Rod of Embodiment"—exists somewhere on the New Continent, so do your best, cute-girl-avatar-using older guy! (I just wanted to use the term Babiniku/Virtual-Cute-Girl-Reincarnation).