<h4>Volume 3 Chapter 8.3</h4>
Trantor: Adam Seacord
Editor: Weasalopes
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“So, what was that, anyway?”
“Worldshaker? Basically, it’s a Hell Inferno under a different element. The change is, this one attacks a single point. In terms of AOE, this is aplete downgrade. With just one shot, it could only obliterate ‘bout 10% of Wulls.”
“That’s terrifying!”
“Nah. One shot, and the barrel itself takes three hours to cool while the system takes one week. And it’ll take another week to charge that much energy again. It’s our trump card, and it’s really low on ammo. That much’s a requirement.”
A trump card, indeed. With an extremely limited time frame to use and its overly destructive nature, they couldn’t very well count on it. If they weren’t in a desert, they would not have even been able to fire it at all.
“And about the name… Did you make that up?”
“It came that way. The worse one in the line of these is Universeshaker. In terms of numbers, 5% charge on that thing will make ours look like a joke. The biggest weak point is that we can’t use neither without strappin’ it to a car or boat.”
This vehicle attachment weapon was way out there in terms of firepower and name. By the way, this Worldhshaker uses the core of the Barold they defeated in Fane as one of its materials. Seeing that things would end badly if left alone, Hiroshi tinkered with it topletely de-afflict it before making a cannon from it. So, this Unknown Barold was blown to bits by a weapon made from a part of his kin.
“So, Sensei.”
“Yeah?”
“Is that thestbat gadget?”
“Haven’t used our side cannon yet. Or a few of the specialty shots.”
Mio asked with glimmering eyes, and Hiroshi nonchntly answered with some scary words. It almost seemed like they were living in a certain RPG where the yer uncovered tanks and modifies them.
“Hiroshi-kun. Let me ask you for future reference… Side cannon?”
“Magic Laser. Was a toss-up ‘tween that and some sort of machinegun. Didn’t have ‘nough capacity on this thing.”
“How’s its firepower?”
“About as much as Mio firin’ normally with a bow made from a Hunter Tree.”
Lukewarm. While it was incredibly powerful as a long-range weapon, it was iffy if that level of attack would affect an enemy of Barold’s caliber.
“I mean, I can’t fire that one now, either.”
“You’re saying…”
“The entire armory of the car’s got a shared dy, ‘bout thirty minutes for Worldshaker. So, right now, all it can do is drive it like a normal car, or transform it ‘to a food stand to do some business.”
“What more do you want…?”
“Our radar’s dead, now, too. Too iffy to be movin’ ‘round just yet. Gotta hang tight.”
Watching the still raging sandstorm, Hiroshi mumbled this, casually. Still, this one blow-up of dust should settle much faster than an ordinary sandstorm.
“It’s a long storm for just a big cloud of dust.”
“Looks like we blew up more than I thought.”
“Why are you acting like you weren’t the one who pushed the button…?”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it.”
After a while of bickering, their visual finally cleared.
“Just to make sure, I’m gonna go check that the thing ain’t still breathin’.”
“Oh, I’ll go with you,” said Haruna.
“Alrighty.”
There was no affliction left, and the debuffing and Capture Barrier were both Hiroshi’s special-made ones that would have negated even Octogal’s transference. While the chance of the thing surviving or escaping was extremely low, it would be more trouble down the road if they had missed the chance to finish him off.
“First of all, Haruna-san, throw this on.”
“Okie dokie.”
He handed Haruna a sort of gas mask before ealking out of the car and walking towards the center of the crater with their guards up. There, they found the probably-Barold facing certain death yet still alive.
“It’s alive…”
“Let’s finish it off, shall we?”
The Unknown Barold had disyed the kind of vitality exhibited in the Most-Hated-Creature-Found-In-Your-House (a certain ck scuttly thing) but ended up having its head cracked open by Hiroshi and its core extracted without even a chance to do a substantial attack or utter a word.
“Hey, Haruna-san.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you smell an opportunity o’er there?”
Haruna turned to where Hiroshi was pointing, her heart pounding from being alone with him. There, there were a good number of desert delicacies lying around, like Sand Sharks and Sand Rays.
“…Wow, you’re right!”
“I’ll go get Mio.”
“Oh, I’ll go. Go ahead and start without me, Hiroshi-kun.”
“Roger that.”
They wouldn’t make it back to Darl by the end of the day, anyway. As soon as that fact was evident, the party decided to leisurely mine their profits from thend. Seeing that not even the Norton sisters objected, they werepletely assimted.
This particr Barold, who was never given a definite name until the end, didn’t even get a chance to exin why it turned to such a direct method of attack before encountering a retaliation so out of left field that it was out of right field, and being treated like any other piece of material by Hiroshi.
“What do we know about the incident in the desert?
“You’re interested too, Mister Alvan?”
“Naturally. Even though it’s more than a day away by carriage, it is just a day. Who knows how that will affect Darl?”
“Is that how it is.”
“That is, indeed, how it is.”
Alvan, as he instructed his ally who went around town collecting information like a certain celebrity, asked for intel. It goes without saying that even this ally didn’t know Alvan’s true face under the mask.
“Currently, this is what I got for rumors about that incident.”
“I see. All you have for sure is that there was a sudden, loud noise before the earth shook and an incredible sandstorm roared up.”
“Yessir, I’m sorry.”
“No, with this much information crisscrossing, we can’t figure out the truth just yet. We’re better off for at least having some vision of the incident.”
Consoling his ally like this, Alvan listed up his wanted intel, trying to capitalize on the opportunity to ask.
“And, let’s see… Anything new about the weirdos that are strangely aggressive to outsiders?”
“Sorry to say, sir, they ain’t doing muchtely. All the rumors are iffy, too.”
“How long istely?”
“Lessee. From about the time the folks you’ve been watching’s been doing their foodstand every day.”
Hearing this, Alvan slightly rose his brow as if he had expected the answer.
“Any idea about it, sir?”
“Some, but even if I told you, I don’t it will change the information I’ll get from you.”
“Huh, is that how it is?”
“That is, indeed, how it is… Hm. I’ll have you keep collecting rumors as-is while you dig deeper on the movement of the Igreos temple.”
“I don’t mind, but ain’t it yours, or Sparrow’s or Straw’s specialty to dig deeper than this?”
“That’s one avenue, of course. But when we go for evidence, we can’t ignore rumors. ‘People talk,’ has more truth than it than you think.”
His ally nodded in agreement. The instinct of this seasoned clown-like informant, though, was that rumors couldn’t be trusted for the incidents regarding the temple, this time around. It just wasn’t clear why they were attacked this way or why the incidents were dealt like that afterward. Because of this, all the rumors seemed tock a frame or structure to it, making them much more difficult to weed through. Even though this happened once in a while, in cases where there was apletelyck of a through-line and stories reaching in all sorts of directions, it was getting difficult to even make a report to Alvan.
“In any case, don’t expect much from my work, this time around. These rumors are so out of proportion that they’ll make you dizzy…”
“For now, I’ll just take rumors with a little bit of confirmation behind them.”
“Aye-aye. I’ll give it a shot.”
When Alvan asked, he couldn’t say no. While this would most likely end up being a fruitless endeavor, he didn’t particrly mind it. it was more likely for his actions to be fruitless anyway. No sense trying to change that now.
“Oh, speaking of.”
“Hm? You got something?”
“When the folks you’ve been watching left town, the nobles and the folks at the temple were weirdly panicking.”
“…I feel like that’s where all of this is headed. What do you think?”
“I agree. If they headed toward the desert, they might have something to do with what happened over at the desert today. It might just be that whoever attacked the temple folk’s been taken care of by this incident.”
Alvan couldn’t help but chuckle at the idea. The possibility wasn’t non-existent, of course, but it would have been way too convenient for that to be the case.
If whoever was attacking the temple workers had the same caliber of abilities as the Barold he once took out, Alvan knew that it would not be so easy to take care of upon being attacked head-on. The fact that Alvan could take it on alone was simply because he took it by surprise before it transformed, using his bloodline’s most powerful secret attack no less, to cut the thing up to bits. If he was ambushed, he would not have lost so easily, but he was aware that he might not have won.
“If the attacker we’re after is who we expect it to be, their boss at least won’t be too easy to take care of.”
“If you say so, sir, it must be.”
“That being said, I’ve heard that they had fought and won against a foe as formidable as the one we’re after. If the attackers are after the clergywomen tagging alone the party, it isn’t impossible that they were attacked and took out that thing.”
Alvan analyzed the situation as such with a serious face, but he didn’t expect his ally to have hit the mark so spectacrly. From just meeting them once and getting second-hand information here and there, it was only natural that he had no idea of how ridiculous Hiroshi was.
“In any case, there won’t be in any progress in that department until they return. Until they do, keep digging like we’ve talked about.”
“Yessir. What are you up to after this, sir?”
“I think I’ll go tend to some flowers.”
With that poetic line, Alvan disappeared from the scene. While this usual urrence didn’t bother him, his ally couldn’t help but wish for a few crumbs to crumble his way.