Chapter 48 - Volume 5 (1/2)

Chapter 8 : Raisen Great Dungeon and The Last Trial

“Yaho~, nice to meet you~, Miledi Raisen that’s loved by everyone is here~”

From the gigantic golem equipped with brutal equipment and full body armor and a helmet, whose sharp glint was able to make people freeze, was a random and light greeting. The words that it had said couldn’t be understood, even by Hajime. His mind was somehow trying to escape the reality in front of him. Even Shia and Yue forgot that they were encircled and could only stare blankly with their mouths opened.

Because the trio stiffened, the gigantic golem let out a sullen voice. It was a woman’s voice.

“You know~, because I already gave out a greeting, reply with something already. That’s proper manners, you know? Geez, that’s why youngsters of this generation… … should have more common sense.”

They were words filled with real irritation. Moreover, the gigantic golem was raising its burning right hand and its left hand that held on the thorned iron ball at shoulder height. It was a random and human-like gesture as if it said, “Yare yare daze”, while shrugging its shoulders and shaking its head. But, Hajime and his party were the ones that were truly irritated by it. It was as if they were seeing those annoying sentences again. Although the one that called itself “Miledi Raisen” might be the one behind those words, that woman should have been dead, she was a human after all.

For the time being, Hajime observed his surroundings.

“I am sorry about that. But, Miledi Raisen should be a human and already dead, right? Moreover, I have never heard of a golem with an ego… … that’s why we are surprised, so please forgive us. After that, please explain who you are. Make it brief.”

“Aree~, this person, even under this situation you’re so conceited.”

There was no need to observe anything at all. Rather, he let out a super straight ball. As expected, because of his unexpected reaction, the gigantic golem that called itself Miledi showed a perplexed expression. However, it immediately recovered, it replied to Hajime and his party with a voice that could simply make one imagine it as someone grinning, if it were human.

“Nn~? Miledi-san is a golem-san from the start you know~ To say I was human…”

“I have read a little about you from Oscar’s notes. It’s perfectly written that you’re a human woman, you know? Rather, I don’t want to hear any foolish talk. I already said to make it brief before. Even if you try to obstruct us, what we need to do is still the same. I will turn you into scrap and move on. That’s why, before you can’t make any more ‘gata gata’ sounds, tell us everything.”

“O, oou, because it was my first conversation after a long time, no matter what you say it makes me dance with joy inside. Rather, did you just say Oscar? Don’t tell me, you’ve conquered O-chan’s dungeon?”

“Aa, if it was Oscar Orcus’s dungeon we already conquered it. Rather, it was us who’s supposed to do the asking. If you won’t talk then we’ll fight, you know? Well, it’s not like we need to know anything. Our only objective is the age of Gods magic after all.”

Hajime turned Donner toward the gigantic golem. Although Yue showed a clarifying face, Shia said “Uwa~, he didn’t shake at all~”, in half-surprise and half-amazement while looking at Hajime.

“… … Age of Gods magic you say, then as expected, is that for god slaying? Is it to slaughter and destroy those shitty bastards? If you have captured O-chan’s dungeon, then you know the situation, right?”

“I already said that it was us who’s supposed to do the asking. What we want is the answer, so answer our inquiry from before.”

“This fellow~ is truly conceited~, well, that’s okay~, umm what was it… … Aa, my identity. Uu~n”

“Make it brief. I don’t need a long explanation like Oscar’s.”

“Ahaha, certainly, O-chan’s speech was long~, and there was too much theory~”

The gigantic golem looked up at the ceiling into a far distance, filled with nostalgia. It was truly a golem with human-like movements. Yue gazed at the gigantic golem with her usual expressionlessness, while Shia was restless because of the surrounding golem knights.

“Un, I will say it briefly as you want. I am certainly Miledi Raisen. All the golem’s wonders can be explained with age of Gods magic! If you want to know more, then magnificently try to defeat me! Well something along those lines.”

“In the end, there is no explanation…”

“Hahaha, that was, before you complete the conquest, you won’t receive any information, right? Without that there would be no meaning behind the dungeons, you know?”

This time, the gigantic golem, Miledi Golem, used her finger as if saying, tsk tsk tsk! Although they didn’t know for sure if Miledi Raisen was inside of it, if they excluded the character then the golem had its own charm. Yue boldly muttered, “… … its only problem is the inside”, having the same impression as Hajime.

Finally, about that inside, they still didn’t understand anything in the end. If it was truly Miledi herself, Hajime guessed it must be some kind of residual thought. Hajime hazily remembered from his memory that his classmate, Nakamura Eri, was a necromancer; a job that handles residual thoughts. However, with her necromancy a residual thought that carried a clear intent like this couldn’t be formed. In other words, it was still in the boundary to assume that the established intent of the deceased inside the golem was made by age of Gods magic.

Anyway, it was not a magic that could be used to move to other worlds that he was looking for. So Hajime who was a little disappointed asked a question to the gigantic golem, no Miledi Golem.

“Your age of Gods magic, is it something related to residual thoughts? If that’s so, there is no reason for me to be here.”

“Nn~? That look, do you have other purposes to get age of Gods magic? By the way, my age of god magic is not that one~, I was helped by Ra-kun to establish my soul in this body~”

Hajime’s objective is only to go back to his own world. Because he doesn’t understand anything about souls and thoughts, obtaining an age of the Gods magic that manipulates something like that would be pointless. That said, after he asked about that, Miledi’s reply didn’t match up to his predictions. Even though he didn’t know who Ra-kun was, it was probably one of the “Liberators.” That person gave Miledi Golem Miledi’s soul before she died and established it inside the golem.

“Then, what is your age of Gods magic? Depending on your answer, we’ll return as we are…”

“Nn~ Nn~, do you want to know? Do you really want to know?”

Once again, Miledi asked with a grinning-like voice, and Hajime who was waiting for her reply was irritated by it.

“If you want to know~, answer my question first,”

Only on the last few words in her voice changed. Her frivolous atmosphere up till now vanished, and she carried seriousness instead. Hajime and his party were a little surprised by the change. Hajime asked back without showing that on his expression.

“What is it?”

“What’s your objective? What do you need age of Gods magic for?”

I won’t forgive any falsehood was what her tone implied, even her joking atmosphere totally disappeared when Miledi asked that. That was probably this woman’s true nature. If you think about it, she even challenged the Gods for the sake of the people. That was why she didn’t want to entrust her magic to someone with an unknown purpose. It was different from the will in Orcus’s image recording. No matter if hundreds of years pass by, she intended to keep waiting deep in the dungeon to ascertain the challengers’ purpose. In a way it could be called torture for her. Even her frivolous attitude was a bluff, the real her is someone who has great patience and will, it could be said that she had a sense of responsibility.

Maybe because Yue also thought of her like that, she had been looking at Miledi Golem with a different expression since a while ago. Yue understood well the suffering of someone who was alone in the depths of darkness. That’s why, for Miledi who was determined to leave her soul behind in order to stay in the depths of the darkness, she seemed to feel something more than sympathy.

Hajime looked straight at Miledi Golem’s glinting eyes and replied without any falsehood.

“My objective is to return to my hometown. I was forced into this world by the ones you call mad Gods. I am looking for age of Gods magic that’s capable of transferring people between worlds… … I have no intention of defeating the Gods in your stead. I don’t even have the slightest inclination to risk my life for this world.”

“… …”

For a while Miledi Golem quietly stared at Hajime, then maybe because she reached something she gave a little nod. Afterwards, she only muttered “I see”. And, in the next moment, her serious atmosphere disappeared as if it was an illusion and her frivolity returned.

“Nn~, I see I see. So that’s it~, you’re from a different world~. Un un. That is problematic for you~ Okay, then it’s time for battle! Splendidly defeat me and you will obtain the age of Gods magic!”

“Although your chain of reasoning was so odd that I lost the meaning of it… … just what’s with “then it’s time”. Rather, didn’t you hear my words? If your magic isn’t transition magic there will be no meaning, you know? Or are you saying it is transition magic?”

Miledi only, “Nnfufu~”, let out an unpleasant laugh, then, “That is… …”, answered with a voice filled with too much emphasis as she prolonged her answer. Her appearance resembled Mino**n that tried to inform the Final Answer.

Finally, with his irritation reaching its limit, and because it’d be a battle from now on, Hajime took out Orkan and Miledi shouted the answer she forestalled.

“No~t telling!”

“Die.”

Without asking any more questions, Hajime fired the rockets from Orkan. Leaving trails of sparks, the storm of destruction flew toward Miledi Golem and hit.

ZUGAaAAAN!!

The violent sound of explosions resounded and shook the room. Smoke rose from that explosion.

“Did we do it!?”

“… … Shia, that was a flag.”

Shia who let out “first strike for victory!”, with a joyful look was tsukkomi’ed by Yue. The result: it was just as Yue said. From inside the smoke the burning right hand appeared with a ‘bobah,’ sound and dispersed the smoke.

When the smoke cleared up Miledi Golem appeared, with some parts of both of her forearms broken. Miledi Golem picked up the floating blocks that had drawn near, and they were decomposed to become materials for the parts of her arms that were broken.

“Fufu, what a fast preemptive strike~, come, my age of Gods magic might be what you seek after all~, but because I am strong~, work hard so you won’t die~”

While laughing joyfully, Miledi Golem shot out the flail-type Morningstar in her left hand toward Hajime and his party. It wasn’t thrown. The Morningstar just suddenly flew with tremendous velocity without any starting movement. Perhaps, the gravitational force’s direction was adjusted and made it “fall” just like the other golems.

Hajime and his party avoided the Morningstar by jumping onto a nearby floating block. The Morningstar turned the block that Hajime and his party were previously standing on into minute pieces. Then it turned around and returned to Miledi Golem’s hand.

“Let’s do it! Yue, Shia. Let’s destroy Miledi!”

“Nnh!”

“Affirmative!”

Along with Hajime’s shout, inside one of the Seven Great Dungeons; Raisen Great Dungeon, the last fight began.

The golem knights who raised their large swords in a standby state began to move as if signalled by Hajime’s shout. Just like inside the passage before, they turned toward Hajime and his party and rushed out.

Yue took out a water bottle that was clanking with the other bottles and used it to horizontally mow down her enemies. The water that was pressurized to the limit, rather than water cutter it cut apart the golem knights more like a laser.

“Ahaha, you can do it after all~, but, the enemies are 50 infinitely regenerating knights and me, I wonder if you can handle all of us at the same time~”

While saying that with a sarcastic tone, Miledi fired the Morningstar again. Shia made a big jump, and jumped onto the moving pyramid block’s upper part. Hajime didn’t move from his spot and turned Donner toward the Morningstar and fired rapidly.

DOPAaaNh!

There was only one gunshot sound. However, the bullets that fired numbered six. The attacks were accompanied with a flash aimed only at the approaching Morningstar, striking it with tremendous velocity. It was indeed a metal ball with huge mass, there was not much change even after it was hit by the railgun six times at the same time, but its trajectory deviated away from Hajime by a large margin.

At the same time, Shia jumped from the upper part of the block to Miledi’s overhead, she brought down Doryukken as she fell.

“I already saw that~”

Along with those words, Miledi Golem suddenly moved to the side at a great velocity. She must be “falling” to the side.

“Kuh, you—!”

With her aim off, Shia gritted her teeth and pulled Doryukken’s trigger, then an explosion came out. With the cartridge ejecting from the side, her trajectory was corrected. After spinning three times, a blow that carried significant centrifugal force hit Miledi Golem.

ZUuGAGAN!!

Miledi Golem immediately used her left arm to guard. A tremendous sound of impact came from the left hand. However, as if nothing happened Miledi Golem swiped her left hand horizontally.

“Kyaaaa!!”

“Shia!”

Shia who was hit let out a scream. Somehow she managed to pull Doryukken’s trigger and corrected her pose using its explosive power; additionally, using the recoil she made an emergency landing on the nearby block.

“Hah, you can do it after all. Oi, Yue. Just what kind of training did you make her do?

“… … I only drove her into a corner.”

“… … I see, it was something like polishing her ability to survive to the maximum.”

Hajime used Farsight to confirm Shia who ‘pyon pyon,’ bounced on the blocks to come back, with admiration in his mind. And, on the block Hajime and Yue were on, the golem knights that rushed them was finally could not be held back by Yue alone.

Hajime took out Metherai the Gatling gun from “Treasure Box.” Then, with his back turned to Yue, he unleashed the monster capable of scattering 12,000 deaths per minute.

DOuRURURURURU!!

Its six barrels began rotating as he fired it. While letting out sounds particular to this weapon, a lot of flashes flew straight freely all over the room; while the enemies who met the bullets mid-air were turned into scrap and fell to the bottom. Those that sneaked around to the other side to evade and attack from the blind spot, by a laser of water, were perfectly cut.

More than 40 golem knights fell to the bottom of the room in tragic states in no time. After some time, they would likely finish reconstructing and return to the frontline, but it was good that they won’t be hindrances for a while. That’s right, until the time their boss, Miledi Golem is destroyed.

“Wh-, what was that!? I have never seen nor heard of anything like that!”

Having heard Miledi Golem’s astonished shout, Hajime put Metherai back into “Treasure Box,” then once again he pulled out Donner, and let out a voice that could be heard even by Shia who was at a distance..

“Miledi’s core is at the same place as the heart! Destroy that!”

“W-wh-! How did you know that!?”

Once more, Miledi let out an astonished voice. Surely she didn’t know that Hajime has a magic eye that’s capable of seeing the flow of magic power. Because the position of the core that could be used to defeat the golem was confirmed, Yue and Shia’s eyes became sharp with a glint.

Currently, there were around ten golem knights that still floated. The trio released waves of attacks aimed to hit Miledi’s heart.

Hajime immediately tried to get closer to Miledi Golem by jumping using the floating blocks as footholds. With the current output of the Railgun, it’d be hard to pierce Miledi Golem’s gigantic body and hit the core. That’s why, he decided to shoot at zero distance to destroy the armor, then pull out a grenade.

However, it was not that easy.

When he noticed Miledi Golem’s eyes shine for a moment, blocks were floating from her overhead toward Hajime with tremendous speed.

“!?”

“I never said I can only control the knights~”

Ignoring Miledi’s grinning voice, Hajime immediately ‘gashun,’ operated his artificial arm’s gimmick.

DOGANh!!

With a sound that could affect the insides of your stomach, an explosive sound rang out and pressure was generated from the back of the artificial arm that was aimed forward. More specifically, it was the discharge of the powerful shotgun. Although acceleration using electromagnetism couldn’t be done, the compression ratio of combustion powder was much higher than in Donner. The recoil was also severe because of it. The trajectory of Hajime’s body changed mid-air, while the blocks that came flying were dodged. Afterward, he somehow managed to put his feet on the targeted block.

Naturally, Miledi Golem tried to “drop” Hajime’s foothold, but before she was aware, Shia already approached her from behind and she jumped to deliver a strong hit on Miledi Golem’s head. First of all, she wanted to destroy the eyes’ part on the head that gave off suspicious light.

Miledi Golem who noticed Shia was approaching, made the golem knights target Shia that was in the middle of her jump. Shia was completely defenseless mid-air. At the moment that she was almost cut by the large swords.

“… … I won’t let you.”

This time, it was Yue that had moved before she was aware of it, using “Rupture” she cut the golem knights that tried to attack Shia.

“As expected of Yue-san!”

While saying that, with the trouble gone, Shia continued to advance in the air, and she delivered the attack that was made by strengthening her physical ability to the limit.

“Golem won’t lose in terms of power~”

Miledi Golem proved her own words, while turning around she immediately swung her burning right hand toward Shia.

DOoGAGAGAN!!

A tremendous roar resounded when Shia’s Doryukken and Miledi Golem’s heat knuckle collided. The surrounding floating blocks were blown away radially by the ensuing shockwave.

“Damn you!”

Shia who was unable to penetrate Miledi Golem’s fist let out a shout to pull out more of her power. However, just as expected of a golem’s physical strength, Shia was shaken off and blown away by the fist.

“Kyaaa!!”

Shia let out a scream. There was no floating block in the direction she was in. Because she thought Shia would fall at this rate, Yue dashed out from the side and embraced Shia. Using “Soar” for just a moment, they corrected their trajectory and landed on the floating block in front of them.

“Quite a combination you have there~”

With a composed voice, Miledi Golem looked up while Yue and Shia looked down at her. An unexpected voice came out from nearby.

“Right?”

“!?”

Letting out a panicked and surprised voice, Miledi Golem changed the direction of her glance. Before she was aware of him, he had slipped onto her bosom while fixing his location using the anchor and putting his foot into the cracks on the armor, he aimed the large weapon : Schlagen to the heart’s part. A bright red spark gushed out from Schlagen.

“S-since whe—!?”

DOoGAN!!!

Miledi’s surprised words were cut off by the roar that came from Schlagen. Having fired a mass of killing intent from zero distance, it blew Miledi Golem away and her chest armor was shattered into tiny fragments. Even if “Lightning-clad” couldn’t be used with enough output, the current Schlagen’s firepower was the same as Donner’s maximum power. Even so, that was enough firepower to destroy metallic armor. Even golem knights’ armor could easily be blown apart by the current Donner, so Miledi Golem’s armor that’s made from the same materials even if it was a little thicker, could be destroyed using Schlagen.

Blown backwards, smoke came from Miledi Golem’s chest. Hajime also flew backwards. By shooting the anchor, he turned around mid-air, and with the momentum he landed on a nearby floating block. Then, he observed Miledi Golem’s condition.

Yue and Shia also jumped to the floating block near Hajime.

“… … Did we do it?”

“Although there was a response…”

“With this, I want it to end.”

Having heard Yue’s response, Shia said her wishful thinking. Hajime’s expression was subtle. Although Miledi Golem’s chest armor was destroyed, without knowing what had happened, nearby floating blocks started to move, and Hajime and his party could hear a voice that was filled with admiration.

“Wow~ you’re the real deal, that was a close call. If there was no magic power disintegration, that artifact’s real power would be very dangerous you know~, yes, having made this dungeon with great effort, Miledi-chan is a genius!!”