Chapter 604: Devouring the Country With a Twirl
It was honestly quite simple. Everyone, even 【Library】, had completely forgotten this painfully simple fact.
Orchestra of the Reverberating Nether is certainly a Unique Monster shrouded in mystery, but its true nature is a music player. Given the nature of Unique Scenario EXs, digging into the background of its existence is the absolute basics. In that case, challenging it over and over won't yield any more hints. Could it be Leviathan...? No, is there a chance it's "that guy" over there?
I have to trace its roots. It's not about where that music player is going, but where it came from. Isn't that where the hint to clearing it lies?
"There's also the hint regarding Elise Jitterdoll..."
From what I've heard, Leviathan has apparently constructed an amusement park on a ridiculous scale in the Third Shell Layer. Part of the reason is simply because it's too much fun, but apparently, no one has managed to advance to the Fourth Shell Layer yet... Nice. Having a goal to aim for besides clearing Orchestra isn't bad at all.
And so, having invited the free-timed Survival to challenge Leviathan with me, I am currently...
"Somehow, it feels like it's been a really long time since I've been here."
In Rabituza.
Part of the reason was to craft and upgrade equipment using the materials from "War Orphan," but completely unrelated to that, I was summoned by Bilac via Emul. Something about "that thing" arriving or whatever. Now what was that about again...?
Tilting my head in confusion as I entered Bilac's forge, I saw an overly anachronistic thug rabbit, and a bipedal calico cat trembling in fear under his glare... Ah, that's right, I remember now. There was that whole theft issue. I had completely forgotten about it.
"I heard it's finished?"
"Y-Y-Yes sir. I, Dalnyata, poured my entire heart and soul into crafting this... the 'Vestige of the Raging Storm Emperor・Extreme'..."
Opening the box offered to me with great reverence, I found something truly bizarre inside. How should I describe it... It looked like someone took a gear, a wheel, and a windmill, mashed them together, divided by three, and ended up with something that didn't look like any of them. That's the best way I can put it.
At least at this stage, the only things I can tell are that it's an accessory, and that it comes as a pair. I should probably read the text first. The flavor text is one thing, but I'm really curious about its performance...
・Scar of the Raging Storm Emperor・Extreme
Though not a god, it is worshipped—a fragment of the Spirit Emperor who manifested his own body.
When equipped, moving at or above a certain speed triggers the effect sealed within the amber.
The "Sealed Amber" series is classified based on the danger level of the entity sealed within, in addition to its elemental attributes. The classes are divided into five tiers: "Coarse," "Dense," "Pure," "Calamity," and "Extreme." Among them, the "Extreme" class is an ultimate coagulation lacking any impurities—overly dense, perfectly pure, and a catastrophe that even the word 'calamity' fails to adequately describe.
Carving its name, granting it flesh, reducing it to a lifeform. Therefore, his single flash divides all creation and separates the truth.
※Special State "Mobius of the Annihilating Storm"... When this state is applied, a special acceleration is generated corresponding to the foot the target steps forward with during walking, running, or jumping motions.
Furthermore, as an additional effect, the target is constantly enveloped in a wind that generates knockback while running.
I feel like I understand it, but at the same time I don't. Basically, it's telling me to just try it out. So, I did.
Equipped in my accessory slots, the Vestige of the Raging Storm Emperor Extreme floated near my left and right hips. Poking them with a finger, I felt a slight repulsive force.
"Since it's a circular colosseum, it makes accelerating a bit trickier, but... alright."
I activated Levin Trigger: Hazard, boosted my stats with various skills, and... Go!!
Treating the circular colosseum like a racetrack, I broke into a sprint, pushing my speed higher, higher, higher... I could feel the two rings floating near my waist increasing their rotation rate in proportion to my speed, and then!!
"Hoha!?"
The moment I planted my right foot forward, the world violently shifted into a blur of horizontal lines in an instant. No, wait, this is an insanely fast counter-clockwise rotation...!?
I was spinning like a top in a bizarre state where I was moving too fast to actually fall over, but this couldn't last forever. First, I need to fix my balance...
"Hago!?"
The moment I kicked off the ground with my left foot with that thought in mind, in a completely unbelievable defiance of all physics, a super-rotation moving clockwise violently launched my entire body away. This time, completely losing my balance, I flew─── SPLAT!!!! ───and blacked out accompanied by a sound like a wet rag being slammed into a wall with all someone's might...
"S-Sunraku-san...?"
"Ah, yeah. I found the cause."
Part of it was because it caught me off guard and I wasn't used to it, but it seems this accessory... applies acceleration automatically. Because it's an acceleration generated outside of my own intentions rather than one I created myself, the synergy with the Overflow state is absolutely perfect in the worst possible way.
This acceleration generates a top-like rotational propulsion force through my body simply by stepping forward once the conditions are met. And since Overflow amplifies my body's physical movements, if I try to move my body to compensate for that rotational energy...
"If I use this in combination with that right now, I will 100% die."
At the very least, it's impossible to control in a space with walls or spatial limits. That being said, this terrifying accessory is by no means useless or incompetent. I can definitively state that much.
"Well isn't that right, Aniki? After all, you went out of your way to come watch."
"Yeah, bet. It's gonna be a real pain in the ass to master that thing, though..."
"Pop!!"
The Thug Rabbit let out a cry of surprise. Well, even though I was acting like I had plenty of leeway on the outside, I honestly had absolutely no idea when Vash had shown up, so I was in a similar boat.
"Masterin' blood and flesh... that means you gotta make that blood and flesh your own. Sunraku, you remember the assignment we gave ya, right?"
"Mastering the Seiten Style so that you would lend me your strength... was it?"
"Nah. What we said was that we'd lend you a hand."
Swish. A cold wind blew, so sharp it felt like an illusion of my skin being sliced open. No, that wasn't it. The sheer intimidating aura radiating from the "thing" Vash pulled out was enough of a monstrosity to create that illusion.
"Pop... N-No way, is that...?"
"Pop!! You ain't seriously lending that to him!?"
Bilac and Evelle's reactions were anything but ordinary. It made sense to me, but was it really something of that magnitude?
"If those guys are gonna push their luck that far... ain't nothin' wrong with lettin' ya swing it for a moment. Well, try holdin' it."
"Eh, oh... Right."
Excluding Emul, who couldn't comprehend the situation, and Dalnyata, who had fainted backwards almost immediately, I received vastly different stares from the remaining three rabbits as I accepted the object Vash offered... It was an "Oodachi" so massive it rivaled my height, yet so grotesquely shaped it was hard to honestly acknowledge it as a sword at all.
"It's heavy... Also, it won't unsheathe?"
"Course not. That thing is the country-devourin' ominous storm that once tried to rule with just its own body... It ain't cheap enough to let some human it don't even know the roots of draw it."
Ah, got it. It's the type that requires qualifications, I understand completely... Hey, is this really okay? Isn't this categorized in the same tier as Rei-shi's sword or Hero Weapons? This doesn't seem like the kind of thing you just lend out as casually as a shoehorn or a backscratcher, you know?
"Well, I trust you ain't gonna do somethin' as dishonorable as tryin' to pocket it... But as it is now, you're just gonna be watchin', y'know?"
Only Vash, laughing with a "kuka-ka," had a natural smile on his face. My smile was twitching, Bilac's smile looked incredibly forced and creepy, and Evelle's smile was purely to hide his anger. Come to think of it, I've become surprisingly well-versed in reading rabbit expressions...
"B-Bilac, could you forge me a practice katana or something? I have an appointment, so I need it by noon."
"........."
Silence. Although Bilac simply stared fixedly at the Oodachi in total silence, she eventually gave a nod, so it seemed that was an OK. And as for my response to Evelle, who was glaring at me with eyes that looked ready to murder me, I thought about various options, but this was really the only way.
"Hey, thug."
"Ahhh?"
"Extreme sense of superiority. (While pointing at him)"
"Step outside ya bastard!!!!"
◆
"Yo Sunraku, sorry to keep you... Wait, you're back to being a guy? Did you die somewhere?"
"No, just had a slight unforeseen accident that turned me into a splatter on the wall..."
"Huh...?"
After that, I ended up getting into a fistfight with Evelle and dealing with Bilac being silently creepy, but I somehow made it to the meeting spot on time.
Giving a half-assed answer to the question from Survival—who seemed to have completely geared up in his "serious" equipment—I looked up to see Leviathan's massive "head" looming over us.
"Nah, don't worry about it. Survival, you've already cleared the First Layer too, right?"
"Hmm? Yeah. I've been busy with Avenger stuff, so I haven't really done much progressing in the Second Layer, though."
"I'm in a similar boat... Alright, let's go."
Onward to Leviathan. We'll start by probing the Second Shell Layer.
Author's Afterword
From a third-party perspective, Sunraku suddenly yelled "Go Shoot!", started spinning rapidly, slammed into a wall, bounced off, abruptly started spinning in reverse, tripped, and tumbled across the floor leaving a trail of scuff marks on the walls and ground until he died.
The Oodachi Vash handed him is exactly what you think it is if you're in the know. I specifically blurted it out on Twitter, but either way, it'll be revealed later, so just overlook it for now.
Somehow the scabbard is shaped in this grotesque, cubist-like manner.
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